forgiveness

From Middle English forgiveness, forgifnes, from Old English forġiefnes, equivalent to forgive +‎ -ness. Cognate with Dutch vergiffenis.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɚˈɡɪvnəs/

• Audio (US)

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• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fəˈɡɪvnəs/
• Hyphenation: for‧give‧ness

forgiveness (usually uncountable, plural forgivenesses)

1. The action of forgiving.
   • 1931, Mahatma Gandhi, Young India

     The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

   • 2014, Carter, Jimmy, “Full Prisons and Legal Killing”, in A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power‎, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, OCLC 904254615, page 39:

     Some devout Christians are among the most fervent advocates of the death penalty, contradicting Jesus Christ and misinterpreting Holy Scriptures and numerous examples of mercy. We remember God’s forgiveness of Cain, who killed Abel, and the adulterer King David, who arranged the killing of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, his lover.

   He begged for forgiveness after being caught stealing from the shop.

2. Readiness to forgive.

• (action of forgiving): remission
• (readiness to forgive): mercy

• forgiveness in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913