Beneficial

How to spell beneficial

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce beneficial

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does beneficial mean?

1. adjectiveProducing a good result or favourable effect; helpful or advantageous.

Beneficial in a sentence

• Regular exercise is beneficial for the heart.

• The merger proved beneficial to shareholders on both sides.

Where does beneficial come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin beneficium, meaning 'a favour' or 'a kindness', which was itself built from bene 'well' and facere 'to make or do', so the literal idea was 'something done well for another'. From that noun came the late Latin adjective beneficialis, describing what produces a good effect or advantage. English adopted it in the fifteenth century, partly through Old French, in legal and general senses meaning 'helpful' or 'advantageous'. The same bene root that means 'well' lives on in everyday relatives such as 'benefit', 'benevolent', and 'beneficiary'. The spelling trap sits in the middle: the soft 'c' sound before -ial is spelled with a single c (not an s or a doubled c), echoing the facere root that also gives us 'efficient' and 'sufficient'.

How the word is built

• bene- (well, good)
• fic (from facere: to make, do)
• -ial (adjective suffix)