With healthful are ranged the words hygienic, salubrious, salutary, sanitary, and wholesome, while the other words are associated with healthy. Salubrious is always used in the physical sense, and is chiefly applied to air or climate.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

beneficial Red wine is beneficial, its secret lies in dosing.
wholesome Tom is the most wholesome person you'll ever meet.
healthful My goats are more healthful than this man's oxen will ever be.
salutary Releasing anger can be salutary.
benign Various types of tumors exist, both benign and malignant.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
salubrious		steady
beneficial		steady
wholesome		steady
healthful		steady
salutary		falling
benign		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

6 letters: benign²
7 letters: healthy², healful
8 letters: laudable³, salutary⁴
9 letters: wholesome², healthful²
10 letters: beneficial⁴, healthsome
12 letters: salutiferous

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (benign² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: salubre
Español: salubre
Deutsch: gesundheitsfördernd
Català: saludable