merciful

From Middle English merciful, mercyful, equivalent to mercy +‎ -ful. Displaced native Old English mildheort.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɜːsɪfl̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɝsɪfl̩/

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: mer‧ci‧ful

merciful (comparative more merciful, superlative most merciful)

1. Showing mercy.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     `Listen, Holly. Thou art a good and honest man, and I fain would spare thee; but, oh! it is so hard for woman to be merciful.'

   • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:

     The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

• ruthful

• merciless
• cruel

• mercifulness

• crimeful