Definition of Happiness

1. Noun. State of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

Exact synonyms: Felicity
Generic synonyms: Emotional State, Spirit
Specialized synonyms: Beatification, Beatitude, Blessedness, Radiance
Attributes: Happy, Unhappy
Derivative terms: Felicitous, Happy, Happy
Antonyms: Unhappiness

2. Noun. Emotions experienced when in a state of well-being.
Generic synonyms: Feeling
Specialized synonyms: Bonheur, Gladfulness, Gladness, Gladsomeness, Gaiety, Merriment, Rejoicing, Belonging, Blitheness, Cheerfulness, Contentment
Attributes: Happy, Unhappy
Derivative terms: Happy
Antonyms: Sadness

Definition of Happiness

1. n. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity.

Definition of Happiness

1. Noun. The emotion of being happy; joy. ¹

2. Noun. (archaic) Good luck; good fortune; prosperity. ¹

3. Noun. Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace; — used especially of language. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Happiness

1. [n -ES]

Medical Definition of Happiness

1. Highly pleasant emotion characterised by outward manifestations of gratification; joy. (12 Dec 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Happiness

happenstance
happenstances
happenstantially
happi
happie
happied
happier
happies
happiest
happified
happifies
happify
happifying
happily
happily ever after
happiness
happinesses
happing
happis
happlicable
happroach
happroachin'
happy
happy-clappies
happy-clappy
happy-go-lucky
happy as Larry
happy as a clam
happy as a clam at high water
happy as a lark

Literary usage of Happiness

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by William James (1902)
"How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness, is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of ah1 they do, and of all they are willing to ..."

2. A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume (1874)
"In what sense of happiness is it true that it ' is really just as it appears'? has mistaken for a thing; but for which—since no one, whatever his theory of ..."

3. The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle (1891)
"As we cannot accept this conclusion, we must place happiness in some exercise of faculty, as we said before. But as the exercises of faculty are sometimes ..."

4. The Great Society: A Psychological Analysis by Graham Wallas (1914)
"Happiness, I further argued, is a much better indication than either Pleasure or ... And yet we cannot, I regretted, be sure that by aiming at Happiness, ..."

5. The Works of Joseph Bellamy, D.D., First Pastor of the Church in Bethlem, Conn. by Joseph Bellamy, Tryon Edwards (1853)
"Existence itself is desirable to mere nature, only as it implies a capacity for the enjoyment of happiness. Nature dreads annihilation, as thereby all ..."

6. The City of God by Augustine, Marcus Dods (1871)
"... so far as the limits of this work allow me, the reasonings by wliich men have attempted to make for themselves a happiness in this unhappy life, ..."

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