welfare
/ˈwɛlˌfɛə/US/ˈwɛlˌfɛɚ/
welfare noun: health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect.
Noun
welfare (usually uncountable, plural welfares)
- Health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect.
- Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- Shortened form of "welfare spending", "welfare payments", or "welfare assistance".
- Oliveira seems to suggest that the Jews of Kiryas Joel are somehow gaming the welfare system to fund their lifestyles, while simultaneously acknowledging the high poverty rates in the town that qualify residents for programs like Medicaid.2026 February 25, Arno Rosenfeld, “After Minneapolis, a YouTuber comes for Jewish ‘welfare queens’”, in The Forward, archived from the original on 27 Feb 2026
- Synonyms:
- welfare assistance, income support, public assistance, social security
Verb
welfare (third-person singular simple present welfares, present participle welfaring, simple past and past participle welfared)
- To provide with welfare or aid.
- welfaring the poor
welfare meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
welfare in Hindi
- health, safety, well-being, happiness and prosperity
- कल्याण kalyāṇ, कौशल kauśal, ख़ैर xair
welfare in Tamil
- நலவாழ்வு, நலம்சார், நலம், நலம்பேணு, பொது நலம்
welfare in Urdu
- aid, provided by a government, etc.
- خیریت xairiyat
welfare in Bengali
- কল্যাণ, মঙ্গল, সমৃদ্ধি, ভব, ভদ্র, ক্ষেম
More languagesFewer languages
- welfare in Telugu
- సంక్షేమము saṅkṣēmamu
- welfare in Malayalam
- ക്ഷേമം kṣēmaṁ
- welfare in Kannada
- ಯೋಗಕ್ಷೇಮ yōgakṣēma, ವೃದ್ಧಿ vṛddhi
- welfare in Punjabi
- ਕਲਿਆਣ kaliāṇa
- welfare in Gujarati
- કલ્યાણ
- welfare in Odia
- କଲ୍ଯ଼ାଣ
- welfare in Sanskrit
- सौभाग्य sáubhāgya, सुधा sudhā́, योस् yós, कुशल kúśala
- welfare in Tagalog
- kagalingan
- welfare in Arabic
- رَفَاهَة rafāha, خَيْر ḵayr
- welfare in Indonesian
- kesejahteraan
- welfare in Persian
- رفاه refâh
- welfare in Thai
- สวัสดิการ sà-wàt-dì-gaan, สวัสดิภาพ sà-wàt-dì-pâap
- welfare in Vietnamese
- phúc lợi
Examples of welfare in a sentence
- Gamekeepers oversee a hunting ground to see to the wildlife's welfare and look for poachers.
- In the study, they juxtaposed economic growth with social welfare indicators.
- Mr. Martin was found guilty of defrauding the Commonwealth by making false welfare claims.
Synonyms of welfare
Forms of welfare
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | welfares |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | welfares |
| present participle | welfaring |
| past participle | welfared |
| past | welfared |
Origin of welfare
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.
Words formed from welfare
- animal welfare
- antiwelfare
- corporate welfare
- corporate welfare bum
- learnfare
- postwelfare
- prewelfare
- shrimp welfare
- social welfare
- wealthfare
- welfare bum
- welfare Cadillac
- welfare capitalism
- welfare check
- welfare economics
- welfare hotel
- welfare magnet
- welfare mother
- welfare parasite
- welfare princess
- welfare queen
- welfare rat
- welfare state
- welfare-to-work
- welfare trap
- welfariat
- welfarism
- welfarist
- welfarite
Phrases with welfare
- welfare bums
- welfare rats
- welfare traps
- welfare checks
- welfare hotels
- welfare queens
- welfare stater
- welfare states
- welfare mothers
- welfare staters
- welfare statism
- welfare Cadillacs
4 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about welfare
- What does welfare mean?
- Welfare means health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect.
- What is welfare in Hindi?
- Welfare in Hindi is कल्याण (kalyāṇ), कौशल (kauśal), ख़ैर (xair). See Welfare meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is welfare?
- Welfare can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce welfare?
- Welfare is pronounced /ˈwɛlˌfɛə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of welfare?
- The plural of welfare is welfares.
Words near welfare in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: welfare (page history and authors); welfare (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); welfare (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಯೋಗಕ್ಷೇಮ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਕਲਿਆਣ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); welfare (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); welfare (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); कुशल (Sanskrit) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-welfare.wav.
Cite this entry: “welfare.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/welfare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.