beneficent
/bəˈnɛ.fə.sənt/adjective
beneficent is an adjective meaning “Given to acts that are kind, charitable, philanthropic or beneficial” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-E-N-E-F-I-C-E-N-T and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 6 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does beneficent mean?
adjective
- 1
Given to acts that are kind, charitable, philanthropic or beneficial.
Near-synonyms: benevolent, generous, magnanimous
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce beneficent?
- UK /bəˈnɛ.fɪ.sənt/
- US /bəˈnɛ.fə.sənt/
Beneficent has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-beneficent.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of beneficent
- more beneficent comparative
- most beneficent superlative
- beneficient
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is beneficent?
Beneficent appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 75,877th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Beneficent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Translations:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | miséricordieux, bienfaisant |
| German | wohltätig, mildtätig |
| Portuguese | beneficente |
| Spanish | benéfico, benefactor, bienhechor |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does beneficent come from?
From Latin *beneficens, *beneficent-, from bene (“well, good”) + -ficens, combining form from faciens, present participle of facere (“to make or do”). Compare English beneficence.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).