Synonyms of merciful

merciful

adjective

as in patient

showing kindness and forgiveness instead of harshness or cruelty especially to someone under one's authority or control

When our English teacher caught us cheating, we prayed he would be merciful in deciding our punishment.

Synonyms & Similar Words

• patient
• benevolent
• compassionate
• sympathetic
• gracious
• kind
• kindly
• gentle
• thoughtful
• forgiving
• generous
• lenient
• forbearing
• humane
• good
• tolerant
• liberal
• pitying
• soft
• beneficent
• understanding
• kindhearted
• sweet
• benignant
• clement
• solicitous
• considerate
• attentive
• nice
• tenderhearted
• pleasant
• warm
• tender
• softhearted
• good-hearted
• benign
• mild
• magnanimous
• good-natured
• friendly
• warmhearted
• affable
• charitable
• unselfish
• selfless
• genial
• companionable
• cordial
• neighborly
• amicable
• munificent
• altruistic
• noble
• humanitarian
• good-tempered
• brotherly
• unsparing
• philanthropic
• comradely
• openhearted
• philanthropical
• greathearted
• freehanded
• anticruelty
• cruelty-free

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• severe
• stern
• harsh
• tough
• grim
• ruthless
• pitiless
• merciless
• unsentimental
• insensitive
• thoughtless
• uncaring
• unthinking
• malignant
• inconsiderate
• mean
• hateful
• malicious
• malevolent
• spiteful
• heavy-handed
• cruel
• virulent
• hard-boiled
• brutal
• malign
• nasty
• savage
• callous
• sadistic
• uncharitable
• unkind
• heartless
• inhuman
• vicious
• barbarous
• ironhearted
• barbaric
• inhumane
• unsympathetic
• stonyhearted
• unfeeling
• brute
• bestial
• atrocious
• brutish
• truculent
• fiendish
• insensate
• hard-hearted
• cold-blooded
• uncompassionate
• unkindly
• antihumanitarian
• wanton

Examples of merciful in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Democrats would look merciful and statesmanlike to undecided voters. —Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 3 June 2024

God is kind, gracious, merciful, truthful and forgiving. —Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 1 Apr. 2024

Some alternative endings in the Chapter 9 Project include Esther calling for a 36-person task force to mend relationships in the kingdom; for Jews to be merciful, rather than vengeful; and for everyone in Persia to surrender their weapons. —Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2024

Eventually, the company will miss an earnings target or announce an earnings warning, and, as recent history has shown, the market will not be merciful in its reaction. —Charles Rotblut, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024