Standard Lemma guide

philanthropy

noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /fɪˈlæn.θɹə.pi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, General-American: /fəˈlæn.θɹə.pi/
  • Texas: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australian: /fɪˈlæn.θɹə.pi/
  • New-Zealand: /fəˈlɛn.θɹə.pi/
  • CMU ARPABET: F IH0 L AE1 N TH R AH0 P IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of humankind.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Charitable giving, charity.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • As public funding is reduced, we depend increasingly on private philanthropy.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A philanthropic act.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable

Examples

  • His tombstone lists his various philanthropies.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A charitable foundation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable

Examples

  • the Rockefeller philanthropies

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

voluntary promotion of human welfare

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: philanthropic gift

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: aid, economic aid, financial aid

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin philanthrōpia, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek φιλανθρωπία (philanthrōpía). By surface analysis, phil- + -anthropy.

Across languages

Translations

75 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: filantropia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Armenian: բարեգործություն (baregorcutʻyun) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Armenian: մարդասիրություն (mardasirutʻyun) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Asturian: filantropía — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Basque: filantropia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Bulgarian: човеколюбие (čovekoljubie) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Bulgarian: филантропия (filantropija) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Catalan: filantropia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Chinese Mandarin: 博愛精神 /博爱精神 (bó'ài jīngshén) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Czech: filantropie — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Danish: filantropi — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Dutch: filantropie — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Esperanto: filantropio — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Estonian: filantroopia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Finnish: filantropia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Finnish: ihmisystävällisyys — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • French: philanthropie — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • West-Frisian: filantropy — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Galician: filantropía — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Georgian: ფილანთროპი (pilantroṗi) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • German: Philantropie — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • German: Menschenliebe — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • German: Nächstenliebe — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Greek: φιλανθρωπία (filanthropía) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Ancient Greek: φιλανθρωπία (philanthrōpía) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Hebrew: נַדְבָנוּת (nadvanút) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Hindi: लोकोपकार (lokopkār) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Indonesian: filantropi — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Irish: daonnachtúlacht — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Italian: filantropia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Japanese: 人間好き (ningen zuki) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Japanese: 慈善活動 (jizen katsudō) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Japanese: 博愛主義 (hakuai shugi) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Kashubian: filantropiô — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Kazakh: филантропия (filantropiä) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Khmer: ស្នេហាមនុស្សជាតិ (snaehaa mɔnuh ciət) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Latin: phĭlanthrōpĭa — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Latvian: labdarība — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Latvian: filantropija — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Lithuanian: labdarys — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Lithuanian: filantropas — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Macedonian: филантропија (filantropija) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Manx: miallys — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Mingrelian: ფილანთროპი (pilantroṗi) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Norwegian Bokmål: filantropi — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: filantropi — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Occitan: filantropia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Polish: filantropia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Portuguese: filantropia — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Punjabi: ਲੋਕ ਭਲਾਈ (lok bhalāī) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Romanian: filantropie — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Russian: филантро́пия (filantrópija) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Serbo-Croatian: филантро̀пија — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Serbo-Croatian: filantròpija f čovekoljublje — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Serbo-Croatian: čovekoljubivost — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Slovak: dobročinnosť — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Slovene: filantropíja — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Slovene: človekoljubje — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Spanish: filantropía — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Swedish: filantropi — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Tagalog: pagkakawang-gawa — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Telugu: దాతృత్వం (dātr̥tvaṁ) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Turkish: hayırseverlik — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Turkish: insanseverlik — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Turkish: yardımseverlik — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Ukrainian: філантропі́я (filantropíja) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Uzbek: filantropiya — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Volapük: menilöf — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Welsh: dyngarwch — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Yiddish: פֿילאַנטראָפּיע (filantropye) — benevolent altruism with the intention of increasing the well-being of mankind
  • Chinese Mandarin: 慈善行為 /慈善行为 (císhàn xíngwéi) — philanthropic act
  • Finnish: hyvä työ — philanthropic act
  • Greek: φιλανθρωπία (filanthropía) — philanthropic act
  • Chinese Mandarin: 慈善基金會 /慈善基金会 (císhàn jījīnhuì) — charitable foundation
  • Finnish: hyväntekeväisyysjärjestö — charitable foundation