beneficial

See also: bénéficial

English

Alternative forms

• benefitial (misspelling)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) enPR: bĕnĭfĭsh'əl, bĕnəfĭsh'əl, IPA^(key): /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, [ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.ɫ̩], /ˌbɛn.əˈfɪʃ.əl/, [ˌbɛn.əˈfɪʃ.ɫ̩]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ˌben.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, [ˌben.ɪˈfɪʃ.ɫ̩], /ˌben.əˈfɪʃ.əl/, [ˌben.əˈfɪʃ.ɫ̩]
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˌben.əˈfəʃ.əl/, [ˌben.əˈfəʃ.ɫ̩]
• Rhymes: -ɪʃəl

Adjective

beneficial (comparative more beneficial, superlative most beneficial)

1. Helpful or good to something or someone.

   Recycling and reusing garbage can be beneficial to the environment.

   • 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8842, pages 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.

   • 2019 October 7, Sandee LaMotte, “The germiest place in your home and the best way to combat those microbes”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 9 March 2023:

     Yes, there are microbes everywhere and most are just fine for us, perhaps even beneficial to our microbiomes and immune systems. We don’t care about those.

2. Receiving a benefit from something.

   the beneficial owner of a company

3. Relating to a benefice.

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “doing harm to someone”): detrimental, maleficial, nocuous, damaging, harmful
• (antonym(s) of “doing neither good nor harm”): innocuous, undamaging, harmless

Derived terms

• beneficial insect
• beneficiality
• beneficially
• beneficialness
• beneficial owner
• cardiobeneficial
• nonbeneficial
• renobeneficial
• unbeneficial

Translations

helpful or good to something or someone

• Arabic: مُفِيد (mufīd)
• Armenian: շահեկան (hy) (šahekan), օգտակար (hy) (ōgtakar)
• Asturian: beneficiosu, benéficu
• Azerbaijani: faydalı (az), xeyirli
• 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: hyödyllinen (fi), suotuisa (fi), tervetullut (fi), hyvästä (fi) (adverb)
• French: bienfaisante (fr), bénéfique (fr)
• Galician: beneficioso (gl), benéfico
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: nützlich (de), vorteilhaft (de)
• Greek: ωφέλιμος (el) (ofélimos), επωφελής (el) (epofelís)

  Ancient Greek: ὠφέλιμος (ōphélimos)

• Hebrew: מועיל (he) m (moíl), מיטיב m (metív)
• Hindi: लाभदायक (hi) (lābhdāyak), हितकारी (hi) (hitkārī), लाभप्रद (lābhaprad)
• Italian: benefico (it)
• Japanese: 有益な (ja) (ゆうえきな, yūeki na)
• Korean: 유익하다 (ko) (yuikhada), 이롭다 (ko) (iropda)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: sûdbexş (ku)

• Macedonian: добротворен (dobrotvoren)
• Māori: whaihua, whaioranga
• Middle English: spedful
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fordelaktig

  Nynorsk: fordelaktig

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

  Cyrillic: благотворан, користан

  Latin: blagotvoran (sh), koristan (sh)

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

relating to a benefice

• French: bénéficial (fr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Portuguese: favorável (pt), generoso (pt)

Noun

beneficial (plural beneficials)

1. Something that provides a benefit.
   • 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.

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin beneficiālis

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central) [bə.nə.fi.siˈal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [be.ne.fi.siˈal]

Adjective

beneficial m or f (masculine and feminine plural beneficials)

1. (relational) of a benefice

Related terms

• benefici
• beneficiar

Further reading

• “beneficial”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007