What's the difference between gracious and merciful?

Gracious


Definition:

  • (a.) Abounding in grace or mercy; manifesting love,. or bestowing mercy; characterized by grace; beneficent; merciful; disposed to show kindness or favor; condescending; as, his most gracious majesty.
  • (a.) Abounding in beauty, loveliness, or amiability; graceful; excellent.
  • (a.) Produced by divine grace; influenced or controlled by the divine influence; as, gracious affections.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) When asked if climate scientists get sick of being asked about records by headline hungry media, he graciously laughed, and said: "For a particular month there is very little significance.
  • (2) Earlier Labour's interim leader, Harriet Harman, told the first post-election meeting of the (PLP) to be "gracious" in defeat.
  • (3) 'I couldn't imagine a worse scenario than not enjoying being Thor, because it's gonna consume a good 10 years of my life' Hemsworth, a gentle giant who seems both grateful and gracious, talks passionately about Thor, with no winking and no weariness.
  • (4) The first tweet was a Qu'ranic phrase in Arabic, meaning: "In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful."
  • (5) The leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, who sponsored similar legislation earlier this year, deserves credit for pushing the issue forward, and even greater credit for his graciousness in standing aside for the cross-party bill.
  • (6) Over the past year, facilitated by the steering group of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network we were invited through email, personal study, and virtual conferencing, to begin considering how we might live out, with urgency and in hope, the Fifth Mark of Mission “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” Our reflections entered a new depth when, in February 2015, ACEN chair Archbishop Thabo Makgoba graciously hosted a face to face meeting in South Africa.
  • (7) "McElderry took his defeat graciously, saying: "Fair play to the guys who have organised the Facebook campaign – it's been exciting to be part of a much-hyped battle and they definitely deserve congratulations.
  • (8) * Christine spelled 'defense' and 'offense' in the American style, but I graciously changed them to proper English for her.
  • (9) I always thought The Kumars and Goodness Gracious Me could never have appeared on any other channel; they were BBC2 products.
  • (10) if this was to have been his last game for New York – and possibly the last of his career – he was gracious enough to leave the limelight to the victors.
  • (11) Nina Wadia, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar in the BBC2 comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.
  • (12) On stage with Iggy Pop (left) and Ricky Gardiner (centre) in 1978: ‘Back then he was very spontaneous.’ Photograph: Getty Images But he's a very normal, gracious person.
  • (13) It adds: "As we pursue this community-based approach to school construction, Raising Malawi would like to graciously return the land in Chinkhota granted to us by the government for the original Raising Malawi Academy for Girls project."
  • (14) Djokovic, who remains world No1 was gracious in defeat.
  • (15) "We were graciously received by His Royal Highness, who responded in these terms 'What the bloody hell are you doing here?'
  • (16) As late as 2012, the gracious address contained flecks of modernising reform – the (largely delivered) move to abolish male primogeniture in the monarchy and the (entirely aborted) effort at electing the Lords.
  • (17) The Zona Rosa was fashioned by the city's europhile elite after the revolution; they named its streets after European cities, and built gracious European residences for themselves and the émigrés among them.
  • (18) The Goodness Gracious Me team are reuniting to do a one-off special, we're all very happy to be back together, to commemorate the show and BBC2.
  • (19) He was gracious about Romney, talking not only about his challenger but his father, the former governor of Michigan.
  • (20) It was the Afro-Caribbean Goodness Gracious Me, but before that show.

Merciful


Definition:

  • (a.) Full of mercy; having or exercising mercy; disposed to pity and spare offenders; unwilling to punish.
  • (a.) Unwilling to give pain; compassionate.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The law and justice minister, Anisul Huq, said the 73-year-old leader was hanged after he refused to seek mercy from the country’s president.
  • (2) But if May rushes headlong into a panicked triggering of article 50 without a clear idea of what she wants out of negotiations, she will have left us at the mercy of 27 countries who have heard little but table-thumping and empty threats from ministers.
  • (3) He called for care for the environment to be added to the seven spiritual works of mercy outlined in the Gospel that the faithful are asked to perform throughout the pope’s year of mercy in 2016.
  • (4) But Ruby Tweedie, another local resident, said: "There have been so many doubts about his guilt that it's only fair that the man, who has only a few months to live, should be shown mercy."
  • (5) Constant ribbing about his private life was compromising Deayton's position as the show's "holier-than-thou" host, who showed no mercy towards politicians or celebrities caught in a similar position, the corporation added.
  • (6) The 70-year-old describes a life of comfortable detachment from mainstream society, but with long periods in which he and his 74-year-old wife, Shin-yeol, are at the mercy of the elements.
  • (7) We're kind of at Mother Nature's mercy at this point," said Tom Kruschke, another fire department spokesman .
  • (8) Without him, we were at the mercy of increasingly nervous investors, and our Hollywood film-making future hung in the balance.
  • (9) Students of privatisation over the years have learnt to be grateful for small mercies.
  • (10) The mayor is a good person, but no one invited him, certainly not officially … The pope was furious.” While the prank provided fodder to critics of the mayor, it also underscored a more serious issue between the Vatican and Rome just a few months ahead of the church’s jubilee year of mercy, which begins on 8 December.
  • (11) The only mercy was they would have known little about it.
  • (12) After Hollande spent two hours on French radio in a patent relaunch of his presidency, a film producer announced that a biopic of Trierweiler’s revenge memoir, Merci Pour Ce Moment (Thank You For This Moment), is now in the works.
  • (13) Hunt replied: "Merci hopefully when consultation over we can have coffee like old days!"
  • (14) "The legal system has lost all sense of mercy and justice and it has been replaced with punitiveness and vindictiveness," Stinebrickner-Kauffman told Mail Online .
  • (15) If Whittingdale had any honour, any mercy, and any basic human decency, he would murder David Attenborough himself today, in his bed, to spare him any further suffering.
  • (16) It was not something that was talked about.” Thomson added: “It was mercifully quick and I remember first of all feeling surprise, then fear, then horror as I realised I quite simply couldn’t escape – because he was stronger than me, and there was no sense even initially of any sexual desire from him, which I suppose, looking back, again I find odd.” The MP said she had felt “absolutely numbed” and ashamed but told no one about the incident.
  • (17) Several survivors and family members of the victims who were flown to the US testified this week , and one cursed Bales for attacking villagers as some slept and others screamed for mercy.
  • (18) This meant that if the rebels started abusing people, the Misca would withdraw, leaving the civilian population at their mercy.
  • (19) Sitting in a side street listening to the sound of loud blasts and gunfire emanating from Nariman House, Rakash Bhaud, the local leader of the far-right Hindu party Shiv Sena, blamed the central government for the failures that, he said, had left them at the mercy of Pakistan-backed terrorists.
  • (20) More emphasis on mercy is needed in this case, surely, and less on killing.