Benefits

How to spell benefits

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce benefits

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does benefits mean?

1. nounAdvantages, gains, or helpful effects that result from something.
2. verbGains an advantage from something, or gives an advantage to someone (third person singular).

Benefits in a sentence

• noun

  The health benefits of regular exercise are well documented.

• verb

  The whole community benefits when local businesses do well.

• noun

  Her new job came with generous benefits such as a pension and private healthcare.

• verb

  A balanced diet benefits both your energy levels and your mood.

Where does benefits come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin benefactum, meaning 'a good deed', formed from bene 'well' and facere 'to do or make'. The Latin noun beneficium described a kindness, favour, or service done for someone, and it travelled into English through Old French bienfait during the medieval period. By the late fourteenth century the spelling had settled toward 'benefit', and the meaning broadened from a single good deed to any advantage, gain, or helpful effect. The same bene 'well' element appears in 'benevolent' (wishing well) and 'beneficial', while the facere 'to do' root sits inside 'manufacture' and 'factory'. The spelling trap is that each consonant stays single: one n and one f, with no doubling, despite how many similar Latin-derived words tempt writers into doubling.

How the word is built

• bene- (well, good)
• fic/fit (from Latin facere, to do or make)
• -s (plural noun / third-person verb)