benignant
Americanadjective
-
kind, especially to inferiors; gracious.
a benignant sovereign.
- Synonyms:
- charitable, generous, benign, benevolent
-
exerting a good influence; beneficial.
the benignant authority of the new president.
-
Pathology. benign.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of benignant
Explanation
Someone who's benignant is goodhearted and kind. Your favorite teacher in elementary school was probably the most benignant of them all. When you're describing a lovely, warm person you can call her benignant, or even describe someone with a particularly sweet face as looking benignant. Another way to use this adjective is as a less common way to say "benign," or not harmful, especially in a medical sense — a benignant tumor, for example, is one that won't hurt you. Benignant, in fact, comes from benign, simply adding the ant on the model of malignant, or "dangerous, infectious, or cancerous."
Vocabulary lists containing benignant
Be Nice!
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Jane Eyre
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The Jungle
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He had "a benignant smile" and was popular with his people.
From Time Magazine Archive
For in one of the mission chambers a venerable, white-haired invalid, with wrinkled, bespectacled eyes and a broad, benignant face, lay on what seemed likely to be his death bed.
From Time Magazine Archive
Horace Mann, contending that education could become "the most effective and benignant of all the forces of civilization," vastly strengthened the Massachusetts system of free public schools for the poor as well as the rich.
From Time Magazine Archive
Onetime president of Universal Turbine Co., a Red Cross and Intelligence Division worker during the War, he is tall, grey-mustached and goateed, a benignant neighbor to Huntington villagers.
From Time Magazine Archive
General Peckem roused himself after a moment with an unctuous and benignant smile.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
