Adjacent Words

Happiness definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

HAP'PINESS, n. [from happy.] The agreeable sensations which spring from the enjoyment of good; that state of a being in which his desires are gratified, by the enjoyment of pleasure without pain; felicity; but happiness usually expresses less than felicity, and felicity less than bliss. Happiness is comparative. To a person distressed with pain, relief from that pain affords happiness; in other cases we give the name happiness to positive pleasure or an excitement of agreeable sensations. Happiness therefore admits of indefinite degrees of increase in enjoyment, or gratification of desires. Perfect happiness, or pleasure unalloyed with pain, is not attainable in this life.
2. Good luck; good fortune.
3. Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace.
For there's a happiness as well as care.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy [syn: happiness, felicity] [ant: unhappiness]
2: emotions experienced when in a state of well-being [ant: sadness, unhappiness]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 15th century 1. obsolete good fortune ; prosperity 2. a. a state of well-being and contentment ; joy b. a pleasurable or satisfying experience 3. felicity, aptness

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Happiness Hap"pi*ness, n. [From Happy.] 1. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan! --Shak. 2. An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended enjoyment; the state of being happy; contentment; joyful satisfaction; felicity; blessedness. 3. Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace; -- used especially of language. Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, For there's a happiness, as well as care. --Pope. Syn: Happiness, Felicity, Blessedness, Bliss. Usage: Happiness is generic, and is applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; felicity is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven. O happiness! our being's end and aim! --Pope. Others in virtue place felicity, But virtue joined with riches and long life; In corporal pleasures he, and careless ease. --Milton. His overthrow heaped happiness upon him; For then, and not till then, he felt himself, And found the blessedness of being little. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see happy

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hap'-i-nes.

See BLESSEDNESS.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Joy, delight, pleasure, gayety, light-heartedness, merriment, cheerfulness, brightness. 2. Felicity, bliss, beatitude, blessedness, enjoyment, welfare, well-being, prosperity.

Moby Thesaurus

Easy Street, acceptance, affluence, appropriateness, beatification, beatitude, becomingness, bed of roses, bewitchment, blessedness, bliss, blissfulness, blitheness, blithesomeness, brightness, cheer, cheerfulness, cheeriness, cheery vein, civility, cloud nine, clover, comfort, composure, content, contentedness, contentment, decency, decorousness, decorum, delectation, delight, ease, easy circumstances, ecstasy, ecstatics, elation, enchantment, enjoyment, entire satisfaction, eupeptic mien, euphoria, exaltation, exhilaration, exuberance, felicity, fitness, fittingness, fleshpots, fulfillment, gaiety, geniality, genteelness, gentility, gladness, gladsomeness, glee, good cheer, gracious life, gracious living, heaven, high spirits, hopefulness, intoxication, jollity, joy, joyance, joyfulness, joyousness, jubilation, lap of luxury, life of ease, loaves and fishes, luxury, meetness, optimism, overhappiness, overjoyfulness, paradise, peace of mind, pleasantness, pleasure, properness, propriety, prosperity, prosperousness, radiance, rapture, ravishment, reconcilement, reconciliation, resignation, rightness, rosy expectation, sanguine humor, sanguineness, satisfaction, security, seemliness, seventh heaven, success, suitability, sunniness, sunshine, the affluent life, the good life, thriving condition, transport, unalloyed happiness, upward mobility, urbanity, velvet, weal, wealth, welfare, well-being, winsomeness