benevolent

1 having or marked by sympathy and consideration for others a benevolent willingness to provide veterinary services to low-income families at greatly reduced prices Synonyms beneficent, humane, benignant, compassionate, good-hearted, kind, kindhearted, kindly, softhearted, sympathetic, tender, tenderhearted, warmheartedRelated Words attentive, considerate, solicitous, thoughtful; affable, amicable, benign, companionable, comradely, cordial, friendly, genial, gentle, good, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious, mild, neighborly, nice, pleasant, sweet, warm; clement, forbearing, forgiving, lenient, merciful, soft; patient, pitying, tolerant, understanding; altruistic, brotherly, charitable, freehanded, generous, greathearted, humanitarian, liberal, magnanimous, munificent, noble, openhearted, philanthropic (also philanthropical), selfless, unselfish, unsparing; anticruelty, cruelty-freeNear Antonyms ironhearted, merciless, pitiless, ruthless, stonyhearted; inconsiderate, insensitive, thoughtless, uncaring, unthinking; grim, hard-boiled, harsh, heavy-handed, severe, stern, tough, unsentimental; hateful, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, nasty, spiteful, virulent; antihumanitarian, uncharitableAntonyms atrocious, barbaric, barbarous, bestial, brutal, brute, brutish, callous, cold-blooded, cruel, fiendish, hard-hearted, heartless, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, sadistic, savage, truculent, uncompassionate, unfeeling, unkind, unkindly, unsympathetic, vicious, wanton

2 having or showing a concern for the welfare of others a benevolent businessman who has donated money and time to helping inner-city youths Synonyms altruistic, beneficent, charitable, do-good, eleemosynary, good, humanitarian, philanthropic (also philanthropical)Related Words selfless, self-sacrificing; bighearted, bounteous, bountiful, free, freehanded, generous, greathearted, handsome, liberal, magnanimous, munificent, openhanded, openhearted, unselfish, unsparing; compassionate, humane, kind, kindhearted; social-mindedNear Antonyms self-indulgent, self-seeking; cheap, closefisted, miserly, niggardly, parsimonious, stingy, tight, tightfisted; hard-hearted, pitiless, unfeeling; self-obsessedAntonyms self-centered, self-concerned, selfish