 4 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
happiness
noun
1: state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from
contentment to intense joy [syn: {felicity}] [ant: {unhappiness}]
2: emotions experienced when in a state of well-being [ant: {sadness}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Happiness \Hap"pi*ness\, noun [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 with 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.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
117 Moby Thesaurus words for "happiness":
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
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
HAPPINESS, noun An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the
misery of another.
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