beneficial

See also: bénéficial

English

Etymology

From Late Latin beneficiālis (“beneficial”), from Latin beneficium (“benefit, favor, kindness”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: bĕnəfĭsh'əl, IPA^(key): /ˌbɛnəˈfɪʃəl/

Adjective

beneficial (comparative more beneficial, superlative most beneficial)

1. Helpful or good to something or someone.
   • 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 72-3:

     Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.

   Recycling and reusing garbage can be beneficial to the environment.

2. Relating to a benefice.

Synonyms

• (helpful or good): advantageous, behooveful (archaic), helpful, useful
• (relating to a benefice): usufructuary, usufructuous

Antonyms

• maleficial, nocuous, damaging, harmful (doing harm to someone)
• innocuous, undamaging, harmless (doing no harm; doing neither harm nor good)

Derived terms

• beneficialness
• beneficial owner

Translations

helpful or good to something or someone

• Arabic: مُفِيد‎ (mufīd)
• Armenian: շահեկան (hy) (šahekan), օգտակար (hy) (ōgtakar)
• Asturian: beneficiosu, benéficu
• Belarusian: кары́сны (karýsny), выго́дны (vyhódny), дабратво́рны (dabratvórny)
• Bulgarian: благотво́рен (bg) (blagotvóren), поле́зен (bg) (polézen)
• Catalan: beneficiós
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有益的 (zh) (yǒuyì de), 有利的 (zh) (yǒulì de)

• Czech: prospěšný (cs) m
• Danish: gavnlig (da)
• Dutch: gunstig (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: suotuisa (fi), hyödyllinen (fi)
• French: bienfaisante (fr), bénéfique (fr)
• Galician: beneficioso (gl), benéfico
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: nützlich (de), vorteilhaft (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ὠφέλιμος (ōphélimos)

• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: benefico (it)

• Japanese: 有益な (ja) (ゆうえきな, yūeki na)
• Korean: 유익하다 (ko) (yu-ikhada), 이롭다 (ko) (iropda)
• Macedonian: добротворен (dobrotvoren)
• Maori: whaihua, whaioranga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fordelaktig

  Nynorsk: fordelaktig

• Persian: مفید‎ (fa) (mofid), سودمند‎ (fa) (soodmand)
• Polish: korzystny (pl)
• Portuguese: benéfico (pt)
• Russian: благотво́рный (ru) (blagotvórnyj), поле́зный (ru) (poléznyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: благотворан, користан

  Roman: blagotvoran (sh), koristan (sh)

• Slovak: prospešný
• Slovene: koristen (sl), dobrodejen
• Spanish: beneficioso
• Swedish: fördelaktig (sv), gynnsam (sv)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: кори́сний (korýsnyj), ви́гідний (výhidnyj), благотво́рний (uk) (blahotvórnyj)

relating to a benefice

• French: bénéficial (fr)

Noun

beneficial (plural beneficials)

1. Something that is beneficial.
   • 1997, Insect Control Guide, volume 9, Meister Publishing, page 29:

     Daytime temperatures may be too hot for just-released beneficials, and birds and other predators are out in full force during the day.