Word.ws English Dictionary

charity

UK/ˈtʃæɹɪti//ˈt͡ʃɛɹəti/

charity noun: an organization, the objective of which is to carry out a charitable purpose.

Noun

charity (countable and uncountable, plural charities)

  1. (countable) An organization, the objective of which is to carry out a charitable purpose.
    • ‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”.[…]’.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
    • The event raised money for local charities.
  2. (countable) The goods or money given to those in need, or the act of doing it.
    Synonyms:
    dole
  3. (uncountable) Benevolence to the less fortunate; the providing of goods or money to those in need.
    • act of charity
  4. In general, an attitude of kindness and understanding towards others, now especially suggesting generosity.
    • July 20, 1677, John Mitchell Mason, letter to a friend
      Judge thyself with the judgment of sincerity, and thou witl judge others with the judgment of charity.
    • You go fuck yourself. You think I'm in this for charity?1980, Paul Schrader, American Gigolo, spoken by Leon (Bill Duke)
  5. (archaic) Christian love; representing God's love of man, man's love of God, or man's love of his fellow-men.
    • Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
    Synonyms:
    agape
  6. (Philippines, US, informal) A free throw.

Proper noun capitalized: Charity

Charity

  1. A female given name from English.
    • By Gis and by Saint Charity, / Alack, and fie for shame!c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • Never did any woman better deserve her name, which was Charity — Aunt Charity, as everybody called her. And like a sister of charity did this charitable Aunt Charity bustle about hither and thither, ready to turn her hand and heart to anything that promised to yield safety, comfort, and consolation...1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 20, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
  2. The 107th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.

charity meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

charity in Hindi

goods or money given
दान dān
benevolence to less fortunate
दान dān, ख़ैरात xairāt

charity in Tamil

தருமம், ஈகை, அறநிலையம், அறமன்றம் அறக்கட்டளை

charity in Marathi

दानधर्म, धर्मादाय

charity in Urdu

benevolence to less fortunate
خَیرات xairāt
More languagesFewer languages
charity in Bengali
সদকা śodoka
charity in Malayalam
ദീനദയാലുത്വം, ഭൂതാനുകമ്പ, ദാനം, ധർമ്മം
charity in Kannada
ದಾನ dāna
charity in Punjabi
ਸਵਾਬ savāb, ਪੁੰਨ punn
charity in Gujarati
પરોપકાર, દાનધર્મ, ચેરિટી
charity in Odia
ଦାତବ୍ଯ଼, ଦାନଧର୍ମ
charity in Sanskrit
वर vára
charity in Nepali
परोपकार
charity in Tagalog
kawanggawa
charity in Arabic
مُنَظَّمَة خَيْرِيَّة, صَدَقَة ṣadaqa, إِحْسَان ʔiḥsān
charity in Indonesian
amal
charity in Vietnamese
từ thiện, thiện nguyện
charity in Myanmar
မေတ္တာ metta, အချစ် a.hkyac

Examples of charity in a sentence

  • Christian charity, or love, stands first in the rank of gifts.
  • If I won the lottery, I would give half the money to charity.
  • The fashion designer was proud to have dressed the queen for the charity event.

All 40 example sentences with charity

Synonyms of charity

Forms of charity

pluralcharities

Plural of charity: charities

Origin of charity

From Middle English charite, from Old French charité, cherte, chariteit, cariteit, from Latin cāritās. * The Tyndale Bible uses native English love instead.

From charity in the Biblical sense of Christian love; first used by Puritans. In early Christian tradition, Faith, Hope and Charity were the martyred daughters of Saint Sophia. The names, taken from 1 Corinthians 13:13 ("And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity") have been translated and used in many languages. The name of the sura (chapter) is one of several translations of the original Arabic.

Words formed from charity

Phrases with charity

Questions about charity

What does charity mean?
Charity means an organization, the objective of which is to carry out a charitable purpose.
What is charity in Hindi?
Charity in Hindi is दान (dān), ख़ैरात (xairāt). See Charity meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is charity?
Charity can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce charity?
Charity is pronounced /ˈtʃæɹɪti/ (UK).
What is the plural of charity?
The plural of charity is charities.

Words near charity in the dictionary

  1. Charito
  2. charitometrid
  3. charitometrids
  4. Chariton
  5. Chariton County
  6. charity
  7. charity begins at home
  8. charity box
  9. charity boxes
  10. charity boy
  11. charity boys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: charity (page history and authors); Charity (page history and authors); charity (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); charity (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); charity (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ದಾನ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਪੁੰਨ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); charity (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); charity (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); वर (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); charity (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-charity.ogg.

Cite this entry: “charity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/charity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.