Benevolent means kindly and wishing others well. Doing good without expecting anything back.
The word is built from Latin parts meaning wishing well, and its opposite, malevolent, is wishing badly, which is why the two are worth learning as a pair. It describes people, expressions and institutions: a benevolent smile, a benevolent employer, a benevolent fund set up to help members in trouble. There is a shade of power in it, since a benevolent person is usually in a position to help, and benevolent dictator is a real if uncomfortable phrase.
1adjectivebenevolentKind, generous and wishing good to others.
“He was a benevolent old man who fed every stray.”
Proto-Indo-European
*welh₁-
Latin
benevolēns
Old French
benevolent
English, today
benevolent
From Old French benevolent, borrowed from Latin benevolēns ("benevolent"). Displaced native welwillende (literally well-wishing).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA