Meaning & use
mercifulness
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Meaning
noununcountableformal
The quality of showing kindness and forgiveness to someone you have the power to punish.
Grammar: Uncountable: say 'her mercifulness', not 'a mercifulness'.
Patterns
- the mercifulness of someone
- show mercifulness toward someone
The king's mercifulness surprised those who expected a harsh sentence.
Her mercifulness toward the prisoners earned her a reputation for kindness.
He spoke of God's mercifulness in forgiving human failings.
Common combinations
- show mercifulness
- The judge chose to show mercifulness to the young offender.
- the mercifulness of God
- The hymn praises the mercifulness of God.
- an act of mercifulness
- Releasing the debt was seen as an act of mercifulness.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mercy
- Mercy is the far more common word for this quality; mercifulness sounds formal and abstract.
- compassion
- Compassion is a general feeling of pity for suffering, while mercifulness specifically involves sparing someone from punishment.
- leniency
- Leniency means not punishing someone severely, but it lacks the warm, kind tone of mercifulness.
Opposites
Word family
- mercy noun
- Kindness shown by not punishing someone who could be punished.
- merciful adjective
- Willing to forgive or treat someone gently.
- mercifully adverb
- In a kind and forgiving way, or fortunately.
- merciless adjective
- Showing no kindness or pity at all.
Commonly confused: mercifulness or mercy?
mercifulness vs mercy
Mercy is the everyday noun; mercifulness is a longer, more formal noun built from the adjective 'merciful' and is much rarer.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'mercifulness' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Mercifulness' is an uncountable noun, so 'the mercifulness of the ruler' is correct. Option A wrongly adds 'a', option C uses it like an adjective, and option D uses it as a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mercifulness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.