Charity. The Latin word which is the origin (through French, as usual) of this idea in English (caritas) historically meant "dearness", both in the sense of affection and love for people, and of how precious and expensive something was (compare Slovak "drahota").

Later it came to mean specifically Christian love for humankind, and in one of the best-known passages in the New Testament, St.Paul's first epistle (letter) to the Corinthians, chapter 13 verse 13, the old version says "faith, hope and charity", but modern Bibles say "faith, hope and love", because of the new understanding of the word charity. As usual, the uncountable meaning is a bit different from the countable. An example of (some) charity is someone's willingness to give money or clothes to help other people in need. An example of a charity is an organization such as the Anti-Cancer League which aims to help suffering people.