Synonyms for mercy
ˈmɜr simer·cy

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. mercy

   Mercy is the exercise of less severity than one deserves, or in a more extended sense, the granting of kindness or favor beyond what one may rightly claim. Grace is favor, kindness, or blessing shown to the undeserving; forgiveness, mercy, and pardon are exercised toward the ill-deserving. Pardon remits the outward penalty which the offender deserves; forgiveness dismisses resentment or displeasure from the heart of the one offended; mercy seeks the highest possible good of the offender. There may be mercy without pardon, as in the mitigation of sentence, or in all possible alleviation of necessary severity; there may be cases where pardon would not be mercy, since it would encourage to repetition of the offense, from which timely punishment might have saved. Mercy is also used in the wider sense of refraining from harshness or cruelty toward those who are in one's power without fault of their own; as, they besought the robber to have mercy. Clemency is a colder word than mercy, and without its religious associations, signifying mildness and moderation in the use of power where severity would have legal or military, rather than moral sanction; it often denotes a habitual mildness of disposition on the part of the powerful, and is matter rather of good nature or policy than of principle. Leniency or lenity denotes an easy-going avoidance of severity; these words are more general and less magisterial than clemency; we should speak of the leniency of a parent, the clemency of a conqueror. Compare PITY.

   Synonyms:
   benevolence, benignity, blessing, clemency, compassion, favor, forbearance, forgiveness, gentleness, grace, kindness, lenience, leniency, lenity, mildness, pardon, pardon, pity, tenderness

   Antonyms:
   cruelty, hardness, harshness, implacability, justice, penalty, punishment, revenge, rigor, severity, sternness, vengeance

   Preposition:
   The mercy of God to or toward sinners; have mercy on or upon one.

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:4.5 / 2 votes

1. mercy

   Synonyms:
   compassion, clemency, forgiveness, forbearance, grace, benefit, gift, pity, leniency, tenderness

   Antonyms:
   exaction, harshness, cruelty, vengeance, unpityingness, unforgiveness

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. clemency, mercifulness, mercynoun

   leniency and compassion shown toward offenders by a person or agency charged with administering justice

   "he threw himself on the mercy of the court"

   Synonyms:
   mercy, mildness, clemency, mercifulness

2. mercifulness, mercynoun

   a disposition to be kind and forgiving

   "in those days a wife had to depend on the mercifulness of her husband"

   Synonyms:
   mercy, clemency, mercifulness

3. mercifulness, mercynoun

   the feeling that motivates compassion

   Synonyms:
   mercy, clemency, mercifulness

4. mercynoun

   something for which to be thankful

   "it was a mercy we got out alive"

   Synonyms:
   clemency, mercifulness

5. mercynoun

   alleviation of distress; showing great kindness toward the distressed

   "distributing food and clothing to the flood victims was an act of mercy"

   Synonyms:
   clemency, mercifulness

Matched Categories

1. • Blessing
   • Compassion
   • Humaneness
   • Leniency
   • Relief

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:1.0 / 1 vote

1. mercynoun

   Synonyms:
   clemency, lenity, lenience, leniency, compassion, pity, tenderness, kindness, mildness, gentleness

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. mercynoun

   Synonyms:
   clemency, pity, lenity, leniency, lenience, compassion, forgiveness, placability, discretion, disposal, blessing, favor

   Antonyms:
   revenge, implacability, inclemency, incompassion

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:1.0 / 1 vote

1. List of paraphrases for "mercy":

   clemency, misericordia, pity, leniency, clemencia, compassion, clémence, rahmah, grace, merciful, rahma, thanks, please, pardon, gracia, piety, rahim

Suggested Resources

1. mercy

   Song lyrics by mercy -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by mercy on the Lyrics.com website.

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How to use mercy in a sentence?

1. William Blake:

   For Mercy has a human heart, Pity, a human face, And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress.

2. JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699):

   The devil and the damned have punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without succor, crying without comfort, mischief without measure, torments without end and past imagination. John Trapp

3. Albert Camus:

   What then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared For there to be an equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal, who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him, and who from that moment onward had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.

4. Stefan Worrall:

   I think it's hard to argue that the weakness we've seen in Japan this year has had to do with fears of a VAT hike and I think investors are much more focused on world events, right now, Japan is at the mercy of how China risks evolve, how expectations regarding Fed rate hikes evolve, and how the Brexit vote evolves.

5. Milan Kundera:

   Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.