well-being

See also: wellbeing and well being

English

Alternative forms

• wellbeing, well being

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛlˈbiː.ɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːɪŋ

Noun

well-being (usually uncountable, plural well-beings)

1. A state of health, happiness or prosperity.

   Synonyms: wellness, weal

   Antonym: ill-being

   • 1643, William Prynne, The Soveraigne Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes, Divided Into Fovre Parts Together with an Appendix, Part 1:

     which concernes our whole three Kingdomes, Parliaments, Religion, and every one of our well-beings, in this preſent world

   • 2024 July 4, Lilit Marcus, “This country has a national happiness index. But what is it really like to live there?”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Most foreigners who have heard of Bhutan know two things: the country charges international visitors a $100/day sustainable development fee (aka tourist tax), and that it is the birthplace of the Gross National Happiness Index, a system intended to look after the well-being of citizens and the environment.

Translations

state of health, happiness or prosperity

• Akkadian: 𒁲 (šulmu, SILIM)
• Arabic: رَفَاهِيَة (ar) f (rafāhiya)
• Armenian: բարօրություն (hy) (barōrutʻyun)
• Asturian: bienestar m
• Belarusian: дабрабы́т m (dabrabýt), даста́так m (dastátak) (prosperity)
• Breton: hevoud (br) m
• Bulgarian: благоде́нствие (bg) n (blagodénstvie), благополу́чие (bg) n (blagopolúčie), благосъстоя́ние (bg) n (blagosǎstojánie)
• Catalan: benestar (ca) m, benanança (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 福利 (zh) (fúlì), 福祉 (zh) (fúzhǐ)

• Czech: blahobyt (cs) m
• Danish: velbefindende n, velvære c
• Dutch: welzijn (nl) n
• Esperanto: bonstato bonfaro
• Finnish: hyvinvointi (fi)
• French: bien-être (fr) m
• Galician: benestar (gl) m
• Georgian: კეთილდღეობა (ḳetildɣeoba)
• German: Wohlbefinden (de) n, Wohl (de) n
• Greek: ευζωία (el) f (evzoḯa), καλοπέραση (el) f (kalopérasi)
• Haitian Creole: byennèt
• Hindi: कल्याण (hi) m (kalyāṇ)
• Hungarian: jólét (hu)
• Indonesian: kesejahteraan (id)
• Irish: folláine f
• Italian: benessere (it) m
• Japanese: 福利 (ja) (ふくり, fukuri), 福祉 (ja) (ふくし, fukushi), ウェルビーイング (uerubīingu) (neologism)
• Korean: 복리(福利) (ko) (bongni), 복지(福祉) (ko) (bokji), 웰빙 (welbing) (neologism)
• Latvian: labklājība f
• Luxembourgish: Wuel n
• Macedonian: благосостојба f (blagosostojba)
• Malay: kesejahteraan
• Malayalam: ക്ഷേമം (ml) (kṣēmaṁ), സൗഖ്യം (ml) (saukhyaṁ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: velferd (no) m or f, velvære n

  Nynorsk: velferd f, velvære n

• Ottoman Turkish: عمارت (ʼimaret), عمران (ʼümran)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: بِهْبود (behbud)

• Plautdietsch: Wool n
• Polish: dobrobyt (pl) m
• Portuguese: bem-estar (pt) m
• Romanian: bunăstare (ro) f, prosperitate (ro) f, sănătate (ro) f
• Russian: благосостоя́ние (ru) n (blagosostojánije), благополу́чие (ru) n (blagopolúčije), благоде́нствие (ru) n (blagodénstvije), доста́ток (ru) m (dostátok) (prosperity)
• Sanskrit: स्वस्ति (sa) n (svasti)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: до̏бробӣт f

  Roman: dȍbrobīt (sh) f

• Slovak: blahobyt m
• Slovene: lagodje n
• Spanish: bienestar (es) m
• Swedish: välbefinnande (sv) n, välmående (sv) n
• Turkish: sağlık (tr), dirlik (tr), erinç (tr), gönenç (tr)
• Ukrainian: благополу́ччя (uk) n (blahopolúččja), добро́бут m (dobróbut), доста́ток m (dostátok) (prosperity), благоде́нство (uk) n (blahodénstvo)

References

• “well-being”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• well-being in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “well-being”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.