Welfare Definition


Welfare, n, Health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being. This is what the Constitution means by "the general welfare," and this is the sense in which governments have established "welfare" programs. The ferocious political backlash against these programs has made "welfare" synonymous with them. A word originally used to advertise them has itself become negatively charged; consider the changed meaning of "welfare state" and the coinage of "corporate welfare."