# welfare

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈwɛlˌfɛə/ · frequency rank #3,458

## Definitions
1. Health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect.
2. Shortened form of "welfare spending", "welfare payments", or "welfare assistance".

## Etymology
From Middle English welefare, probably from the Old English phrase wel faran (“to fare well, get along successfully, prosper”) (cognate with Middle Dutch welvare (“welfare”), Middle Low German wolvare (“welfare”), Middle High German wolvar, wolfar (“welfare”)). Equivalent to well + fare. Compare also West Frisian wolfeart, Dutch welvaart, German Wohlfahrt, Old Norse velferð (whence Swedish välfärd (“welfare”)). The first recorded use in the sense of "social concern for the well-being of children, the unemployed, etc." is from 1904 and in the sense of "organized effort to provide for maintenance of members of a group" from 1918.

## Easily confused with
- **warfare** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/warfare-vs-welfare)

## Common misspellings (10)
`ewlfare`, `weflare`, `welafre`, `welfaer`, `welfarre`, `welffare`, `welfrae`, `wellfare`, `wlefare`, `wwelfare`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/welfare