happiness

I

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Good humor]

Syn. mirth, merrymaking, cheer, merriment, joyousness, vivacity, laughter, delight, gladness, good spirits, hilarity, playfulness, exuberance, gaiety, cheerfulness, buoyancy, good will, rejoicing, joviality, exhilaration, felicity, jollity, jocularity, glee, geniality, good cheer, lightheartedness, joy; see also humor 3 .

Ant. sadness*, sorrow, unhappiness.

2. [Inner satisfaction]

Syn. exhilaration, contentment, bliss, blissfulness, joyfulness, beatitude, blessedness, enchantment, sanctity, ecstasy, rapture, transport, exultation, entrancement, peace, felicity, euphoria, peace of mind, tranquillity, inner joy, freedom from care, pleasure, elation, delirium, optimism, self-satisfaction, benignity, hopefulness, serenity, comfort, blitheness, complacency, gratification, paradise*, seventh heaven*; see also comfort 1 , ease 1 , satisfaction 2 .

Ant. melancholy, depression*, dejection.

II

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

joy, gladness, contentment, bliss, delight, jubilation, pleasure, cheer, high spirits, peace of mind, elation, rapture, euphoria, *seventh heaven, exuberance, felicity, ecstasy. ''It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.''—Marcus Aurelius. ''[Something that]

makes up in height for what it lacks in length. —Robert Frost. ''Tranquility and occupation. —Thomas Jefferson. ''Freedom from suffering.''—Arthur Schopenhauer. ''The mastery of passions.''—Alfred Lord Tennyson. ''Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience.''—Mark Twain.

ANT.: misery, depression, melancholia

III

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun A condition of supreme well-being and good spirits: beatitude, blessedness, bliss, cheer, cheerfulness, felicity, gladness, joy, joyfulness. See HAPPY.