munificent
/mjʊˈnɪfɪs(ə)nt
/adjective
Characterized by or displaying great generosity: a munificent bequest a munificent patron of the arts...
- He found himself having to conduct a war on two fronts - with the Americans to be more generous, and with London to accept that Washington would not be as munificent as they desired.
- Both are munificent presents from the Canadian Professor, wafted to us by the Gotham Book Mart.
- Henry Clay Frick left his house and collection to New York in 1919 and Isabella Stewart Gardner was equally munificent to Boston in 1924.
Synonyms
generous, bountiful, open-handed, magnanimous, philanthropic, princely, handsome, lavish, unstinting, free-handed, unstinted, liberal, free, charitable, big-hearted, beneficent, ungrudging
literary bounteous
Derivatives
munificently
/ adverb ...- Later benefactors included Charles Fairfax Murray, minor Pre-Raphaelite, scholar and picture-dealer, who anonymously and munificently donated forty-six paintings, including the pair by Lely.
- I had the choice to do something more pleasing if I had wished, and I was paid, if not munificently, at least adequately.
- Paul Getty, junior, and Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza contributed munificently to the purchase.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Latin munificent- (stem of munificentior, comparative of munificus 'bountiful'), from munus 'gift'.