Word.ws English Dictionary

phylanthropy

phylanthropy is the obsolete form of philanthropy.

Meaning of philanthropy

Noun

philanthropy (countable and uncountable, plural philanthropies)

  1. (uncountable) Benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of humankind.
    • Secondly, Another excellent Diſpoſition in Chriſt, is his Love, not only his Phylanthropy, or good Will he bears to all men, and the Deſire he hath of their Salvation, Ezek[iel] 33. 11.1681, Bartholomew Ashwood, “Chap. IX. Opening somewhat of the Sweet Dispositions of Christ, viz. His Goodness, Love, and the Riches thereof, as to the Kind, Fruits, and Effects of It.”, in The Best...
  2. (uncountable) Charitable giving, charity.
    • As public funding is reduced, we depend increasingly on private philanthropy.
  3. (countable) A philanthropic act.
    • His tombstone lists his various philanthropies.
  4. (countable) A charitable foundation.
    • the Rockefeller philanthropies

Forms of phylanthropy

pluralphylanthropies

Questions about phylanthropy

What is phylanthropy the obsolete form of?
Phylanthropy is the obsolete form of philanthropy.

Words near phylanthropy in the dictionary

  1. phylactolaemate
  2. phylactolaematous
  3. phylae
  4. phylakes
  5. phylal
  6. phylanthropy
  7. phylar
  8. phylarch
  9. phylarchi
  10. phylarchic
  11. phylarchical

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phylanthropy (page history and authors); philanthropy (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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Cite this entry: “phylanthropy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/phylanthropy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.