What does "well-meant" mean?

Having good intentions, even if resulting in unfortunate consequences.

What is a synonym for "well-meant"?

Common synonyms include: agreeable, amiable, amicable, beneficent, benevolent, benign.

Well-meant

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Having good intentions, even if resulting in unfortunate consequences.
"When a loved aunt has sweated herself to the bone trying to save her god-child from the clutches of a New York playboy and learns that all her well-meant efforts have gone blue on her, it's only natural for her late brother's son to shudder in sympathy."

Adjective

1
marked by good intentions though often producing unfortunate results wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

agreeable amiable amicable beneficent benevolent benign

Example

More examples

"When a loved aunt has sweated herself to the bone trying to save her god-child from the clutches of a New York playboy and learns that all her well-meant efforts have gone blue on her, it's only natural for her late brother's son to shudder in sympathy."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.