altruism
/ˈæl.tɹu.ɪz.əm/
altruism noun: regard for others, both natural and moral without regard for oneself; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness.
Noun
altruism (countable and uncountable, plural altruisms)
- Regard for others, both natural and moral without regard for oneself; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness.
- The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- Altruism allows doing for others as one would be done by. Unlike reaction formation, which also gives to the object what the self desires, altruism leaves the self at least partly gratified. Unlike reaction formation, altruism tempers asceticism with pleasure. Unlike passive aggression and...1995, George E. Vaillant, The Wisdom of the Ego, page 68
- Synonyms:
- selflessness, philanthropy
- Antonyms:
- egoism, selfishness, misanthropy
- Action or behaviour that benefits another or others at some cost to the performer.
- Altruism is a behaviour of an individual that benefits another at its own expense.[…]She decided to investigate what motivates ants to undertake these dangerous missions, where they risk getting trapped themselves or, worse, eaten by predatory antlion larvae, which dig pits and lurk...2013 December 24, Laura Spinney, Goodwill hunting: Random ants of kindness, New Scientist
- Synonyms:
- philanthropy
altruism meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
altruism in Hindi
- policy that benefits others' interests
- परहितवाद parhitvād
altruism in Tamil
- பொதுநலப்பண்பு, பிறர்க்கென வாழுந் தகைமை, ஒப்புரவாண்மை
altruism in Bengali
- পরার্থপরতা, নিঃস্বার্থতা
altruism in Malayalam
- selflessness, unselfishness, compassion
- പരോപകാരം, പരോപകാരശീലം, നിസ്വാർത്ഥത, സ്വാർത്ഥതയില്ലായ്മ, നിർമ്മമത, നിർമ്മമത്വം
More languagesFewer languages
- altruism in Kannada
- ಪರಹಿತ ಚಿಂತನೆ, ಪರೋಪಕಾರ ತತ್ವ, ನಿಸ್ವಾರ್ಥಬುದ್ಧಿ, ಪರಹಿತ ಸಾಧನೆ
- altruism in Arabic
- إِيثَار ʔīṯār, غَيْرِيَّة ḡayriyya
- altruism in Indonesian
- altruisme
- altruism in Persian
- ایثار isâr, نوعدوستی now'-dusti
- altruism in Thai
- ปรัตถนิยม
- altruism in Vietnamese
- chủ nghĩa vị tha
Examples of altruism in a sentence
- The study found that appeals to altruism had limits in changing people's behavior, whereas cold hard cash was somewhat more effective.
- “Altruism is very Seelie.” “The sidhe were all Seelie once,” Shock said.
- In the other EU countries whole blood or aphæresis donations are entirely based on altruism.
Synonyms of altruism
Antonyms
Forms of altruism
| plural | altruisms |
|---|---|
| alternative form | altruïsm |
Origin of altruism
From French altruisme, which was coined in 1830 by Auguste Comte from autrui (“of or to others”) + -isme, from Old French, from Latin alteri, dative of alter (“other”) (whence also English alter). Apparently inspired by the French Latin legal phrase l'autrui, from le bien, le droit d'autrui (“the good, the right of the other”). Introduced into English by George Henry Lewes in 1853, in his translation Comte’s Philosophy of the Sciences, 1, xxi.
Words formed from altruism
- altruist
- altruistic
- altruize
- antialtruism
- biological altruism
- effective altruism
- hyperaltruism
- nonaltruism
- reciprocal altruism
Questions about altruism
- What does altruism mean?
- Altruism means regard for others, both natural and moral without regard for oneself; devotion to the interests of others; brotherly kindness.
- What is altruism in Hindi?
- Altruism in Hindi is परहितवाद (parhitvād). See Altruism meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is altruism?
- Altruism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce altruism?
- Altruism is pronounced /ˈæl.tɹu.ɪz.əm/.
- What is the plural of altruism?
- The plural of altruism is altruisms.
Words near altruism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: altruism (page history and authors); altruism (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); altruism (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); altruism (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); altruism (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-altruism.wav.
Cite this entry: “altruism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/altruism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.