merciful
Syllables: mer·ci·fulUK/ˈmɜː.sɪ.fl̩//ˈmɝ.sɪ.fl̩/
merciful adjective: showing mercy.
Adjective
merciful (comparative more merciful, superlative most merciful)
- Showing mercy.
- `Listen, Holly. Thou art a good and honest man, and I fain would spare thee; but, oh! it is so hard for woman to be merciful.'1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
- The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC
- Antonyms:
- cruel, merciless, barbarous, bowelless, brutal, compassionless, flagitious, demonic, despiteful, diabolic
merciful meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
merciful in Hindi
- merciful, compassionate
- रहीम rahīm, रहमान rahmān, दयावान dayāvān
merciful in Tamil
- அருளார்ந்த, இரக்கமுடைய
merciful in Urdu
- merciful, compassionate
- دیاوان dayāvān
merciful in Bengali
- merciful, compassionate
- রহমান rohoman, রহিম rohim, রহীম rohim
- merciful, compassionate, kind
- দয়াল doẏal, দয়ালু doẏalu
- merciful, compassionate, full of compassion
- করুণাময় korunamoẏ
- merciful, benevolent
- সদয় śodoẏ
More languagesFewer languages
- merciful in Malayalam
- റഹ്മാൻ ṟahmāṉ
- merciful in Kannada
- ದಯೆಯುಳ್ಳ, ಕರುಣಾಮಯ
- merciful in Punjabi
- ਰਹੀਮ rahīm
- merciful in Arabic
- رَحِيم raḥīm
- merciful in Persian
- مهربان mehrabân, رحیم rahim, بخشایشگر baxšâyešgar
- merciful in Vietnamese
- khoan hồng, khoan dung, nhân từ, từ bi
Examples of merciful in a sentence
- His extreme lawfulness made him righteous, but did it make him merciful?
- He's very legalistic, so let's hope the law is just and merciful as well as strict.
- These encouraging messages will guide you to the merciful heart of Jesus-Your Jesus of Mercy.
Synonyms of merciful
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of merciful
| comparative | more merciful |
|---|---|
| superlative | most merciful |
Origin of merciful
From Middle English merciful, mercyful, equivalent to mercy + -ful. Displaced native Old English mildheort.
Words formed from merciful
- merciful heavens
- mercifully
- mercifulness
- overmerciful
- unmerciful
Questions about merciful
- What does merciful mean?
- Merciful means showing mercy.
- What is merciful in Hindi?
- Merciful in Hindi is रहीम (rahīm), रहमान (rahmān), दयावान (dayāvān). See Merciful meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is merciful?
- Merciful is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce merciful?
- Merciful is pronounced /ˈmɜː.sɪ.fl̩/ (UK).
Words near merciful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: merciful (page history and authors); दयावान (Hindi) (page history and authors); merciful (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); دیاوان (Urdu) (page history and authors); করুণাময় (Bengali) (page history and authors); റഹ്മാൻ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); merciful (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਰਹੀਮ (Punjabi) (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: en-us-merciful.ogg.
Cite this entry: “merciful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/merciful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.