| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| benefit |
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| SYLLABICATION: | ben·e·fit |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  b n  -f t |
| NOUN: | 1a. Something that promotes or enhances well-being; an advantage: The field trip was of great benefit to the students. b. Help; aid. 2. A payment made or an entitlement available in accordance with a wage agreement, an insurance policy, or a public assistance program. 3. A public entertainment, performance, or social event held to raise funds for a person or cause. 4. Archaic A kindly deed. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: ben·e·fit·ed also ben·e·fit·ted, ben·e·fit·ing, ben·e·fit·ting, ben·e·fits, ben·e·fits
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To be helpful or useful to. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To derive benefit: You will benefit from her good example. | | IDIOM: | benefit of the doubt A favorable judgment granted in the absence of full evidence. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old French bienfait, good deed, from Latin benefactum, from benefacere, to do a service. See benefaction. | | SYNONYMS: | benefit, capitalize, profit These verbs mean to derive advantage from something: benefited from the stock split; capitalized on her adversary's blunder; profiting from experience.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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