The word "慈善家" is formed by first combining the characters 慈 (cí), meaning "compassion", and 善 (shàn), meaning "goodness", to create the compound term 慈善, which denotes "charity" or "philanthropy". The character 家 (jiā) is then appended as a suffix to indicate a person who specializes in or practices that activity, resulting in the meaning "philanthropist" or "charitable person".