benefit

benefit vb Benefit, profit, avail mean to do good or to be of advantage to someone.

Benefit usually implies personal betterment or improvement (as of one's physical, intellectual, moral, or spiritual condition), but it may suggest enrichment or a furtherance of one's ends

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a summer at the seashore benefits the entire family

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we all benefit greatly by lighthouses, even those of us who have never seen the sea and never expect to— Shaw

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the expansion of the city's industries benefits everyone indirectly

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Profit carries a strong implication of gain, especially material gain. It is therefore preferred to benefit when an increase or yield, as opposed to a decrease or loss, in one's store (as of wealth, power, or knowledge) is to be suggested; thus, he always profits (not benefits, unless one wishes to imply a salutary effect) by the misfortunes of others; no one benefits from a war except those who seek to profit by it

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it will profit you as a congressman to pay more attention to your constituency's wishes

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what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?— Mt 16:26

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do we not lose something . . . when we hurry by and disregard what does not seem to profit our own existence?— Binyon

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Avail, which has an archaic and literary flavor that makes it rare in speech except in historical novels or in sermons or orations, stresses efficacy

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ah wretched shepherd, what avails thy art, to cure thy lambs, but not to heal thy heart!— Pope

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say not the struggle nought availeth, the labor and the wounds are vain— Clough

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Analogous words: better, *improve, ameliorate: *help, assist, aid

Antonyms: harm

Contrasted words: *injure, hurt, damage, impair