World of the word: happy

Notes

a feeling of utter bliss and joy

Pronunciations

happy

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

• adj. Characterized by good luck; fortunate.
• adj. Enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy.
• adj. Being especially well-adapted; felicitous: a happy turn of phrase.
• adj. Cheerful; willing: happy to help.
• adj. Characterized by a spontaneous or obsessive inclination to use something. Often used in combination: trigger-happy.
• adj. Enthusiastic about or involved with to a disproportionate degree. Often used in combination: money-happy; clothes-happy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

• adj. Experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous.
• adj. Favored by luck or fortune; lucky.
• adj. Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous.
• adj. Content, satisfied (with or to do something); having no objection (to something).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• adj. Favored by hap, luck, or fortune; lucky; fortunate; successful; prosperous; satisfying desire
• adj. Experiencing the effect of favorable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous.
• adj. Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

• Manifesting or marked by good hap or fortune; lucky; fortuitously fortunate, favorable, or successful: as, a happy contingency or omen; a happy thought or discovery.
• Conscious that one's general condition of feeling is a highly satisfactory one; conscious that one feels, in general, decidedly more pleasure than pain; having a general feeling of pleasure; satisfied; pleased.
• Being in a favorable condition or in advantageous circumstances; fortunate; secure of good; blessed.
• Affording pleasure or enjoyment; bringing or attended with good fortune, luck, or pleasure; agreeable: as, happy thoughts; a happy condition; happier times.
• Indicative or expressive of happiness; joyful: as, the happy shouts of children; happy smiles or tears.
• Apt; fitting the purpose, occasion, or circumstances; opportune; felicitous: as, a happy expedient; a happy retort.
• Dexterous; ready; able.
• Synonyms Happy, Felicitous, Fortunate, Lucky. Felicitous is now rarely used except in the sense of apt and pleasing, a sense in which happy also is used: as, a felicitous or happy combination, answer, speech. Fortunate and lucky, by their derivations, are a higher and a lower term for the prosperous turns of chance or the lot in life. Happy, though essentially the same by derivation, has a broader application; it is never altogether separated from the idea of enjoyment. See happiness.
• To make happy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adj. enjoying or showing or marked by joy or pleasure
• adj. eagerly disposed to act or to be of service
• adj. marked by good fortune
• adj. well expressed and to the point

Etymologies

Middle English, from hap, luck; see hap. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition) From Middle English hap ("chance") + -y (Wiktionary)

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