Synonyms for mercy

noun

1. Willingness to spare others

   leniency, lenience, clemency, softheartedness, mildness, tenderness, lenity, charity, charitableness, compassion, gentleness, benevolence, benignancy, forbearance, toleration, forgiveness, kindness, quarter, humaneness, humanity, indulgence; see also kindness 1, tolerance 1.

   Antonyms intolerance, indifference*, cruelty.

2. Compassionate assistance to those in distress

   compassion, commiseration, sympathy; see aid 1, pity 1.

mercy implies compassion or forbearance, as in punishing offenders, in excess of what may be demanded by fairness, or it may connote kindness and sympathy to those in distress; clemency suggests a tendency toward mercy or leniency in one whose duty it is to punish offenders; lenity usually implies excessive mercy or mildness toward offenders where greater strictness might be preferable; charity, in this connection, implies a kindly understanding and tolerance in judging others

at the mercy of