merciful.

Willing to spare someone suffering or punishment when able to impose it.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• merciful decision
• merciful release

On the page

The judge made a merciful decision without dismissing the harm.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more merciful; superlative most merciful when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.