Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
mercy (noun)1.
a) compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power , also lenient or compassionate treatment - begged for mercy
b) imprisonment rather than death imposed as penalty for first-degree murder
2.
a) a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion
b) a fortunate circumstance - it was a mercy they found her before she froze
3.
compassionate treatment of those in distress - works of mercy among the poor
Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus
mercy (noun)1.
kind, gentle, or compassionate treatment especially towards someone who is undeserving of it
SYNONIMS:
charity, clemency, forbearance, lenience, leniency, lenity, mercifulness, quarterRELATED WORDS:
humanitarianism, philanthropy; empathy, pity, sympathy, understanding; commiseration, favor, grace; benevolence, care, compassion, gentleness, goodness, goodwill, humaneness, kindliness, kindness, meekness, mildness, niceness, softness, tenderness; altruism, generosity, magnanimity, nobility; affection, devotion, love, worshipNEAR ANTONYMS:
hard-heartedness, mercilessness, pitilessness, ruthlessness, uncharitableness; reprisal, requital, retaliation, retribution, revenge, vengeance; venom, vindictiveness, virulence, vitriol; atrocity, barbarity, brutality, cruelty, sadism, savageness, savagery, truculence, viciousness, violence, wantonness; castigation, chastisement, discipline, punishment, scolding; abhorrence, abomination, detestation, execration, hate, hatred, loathing; cattiness, malevolence, malice, maliciousness, malignancy, malignity, meanness, nastiness, spite, spitefulness, spleen; animosity, antagonism, antipathy, bitterness, enmity, gall, grudge, hostility, jealousy, pique, resentment; bile, jaundice, rancor; hatefulness, invidiousness; coarseness, hardness, harshness, roughness2.
an act of kind assistance
SYNONIMS:
benevolence, boon, courtesy, grace, indulgence, kindness, mercy, service, turnRELATED WORDS:
dispensation, waiver; advantage, benefit, blessing, godsend, manna; liberty, license ( licence), privilegeNEAR ANTONYMS:
hindrance, hurdle, impediment, interference, obstacle3.
the capacity for feeling for another's unhappiness or misfortune
SYNONIMS:
bigheartedness, charity, commiseration, compassion, feeling, good-heartedness, humanity, kindheartedness, kindliness, kindness, largeheartedness, mercy, pity, ruth, softheartedness, sympathy, warmheartednessRELATED WORDS:
feelings, responsiveness, sensibility, sensitivity; affection, love, regard; affinity, empathy, rapport; altruism, benevolence, benignancy, benignity, generosity, goodwill, humaneness, humanism, humanitarianism, philanthropyNEAR ANTONYMS:
callousness, coldness, disinterest, indifference, unconcern; cruelty, harshness; animosity, antipathy, dislike, hatred, hostility