GENEROSITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does generosity mean? 

• GENEROSITY (noun)
  The noun GENEROSITY has 2 senses:

1. the trait of being willing to give your money or time

2. acting generously

  Familiarity information: GENEROSITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GENEROSITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The trait of being willing to give your money or time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

generosity; generousness

Hypernyms ("generosity" is a kind of...):

kindness (the quality of being warmhearted and considerate and humane and sympathetic)

Attribute:

generous (willing to give and share unstintingly)

stingy; ungenerous (unwilling to spend (money, time, resources, etc.))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "generosity"):

charitableness (generosity as manifested by practicing charity (as for the poor or unfortunate))

bounteousness; bounty (generosity evidenced by a willingness to give freely)

bigheartedness (the quality of being kind and generous)

liberality; liberalness (the trait of being generous in behavior and temperament)

unselfishness (the quality of not putting yourself first but being willing to give your time or money or effort etc. for others)

Antonym:

stinginess (a lack of generosity; a general unwillingness to part with money)

Derivation:

generous (not petty in character and mind)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Acting generously

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

generosity; unselfishness

Hypernyms ("generosity" is a kind of...):

share-out; sharing (a distribution in shares)

Derivation:

generous (willing to give and share unstintingly)

 Context examples 

My dear kind Steerforth, how can I tell you what I think of your generosity?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mrs. Norris, however, had gone home and taken down two old prayer-books of her husband with that idea; but, upon examination, the ardour of generosity went off.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"Am I selfish?" the question slipped out involuntarily and in a tone of surprise, for the one virtue on which he prided himself was generosity.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The prospect of four thousand a-year, in addition to his present income, besides the remaining half of his own mother's fortune, warmed his heart, and made him feel capable of generosity.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

That was the kind action; that was the noble benevolence and generosity; that was the service which made me begin to feel how superior he was to every other being upon earth.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“Yet we have all heard the lengths to which your royal generosity runs.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I shall counsel her to tell her future husband the whole story and to trust to his generosity.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As soon as she put it on a flattering personal basis, generosity compelled me to deny her.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I wonder at the goodness of God; the generosity of my friends; the bounty of my lot. I do not repine.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I will prove myself a man, no less by the generosity of my soul than the clearness of my head.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)