Synonyms for joy
- noun
- verb
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Noun
1. Delight — A feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of…
delight, joyfulness, gladness, happiness, elation, glee, mirth, merriment, cheerfulness, hilarity, felicity, exuberance, bliss, cheer, ecstasy, blessedness, jollity, rapture, beatitude, high spirits, delectation, gayness
Verb
Definitions
- n. 1
A feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good.
a child's joy on Christmas morning
- v. 1
To feel joy, to rejoice.
Related words
Choose the right word
Joy is more intense than happiness, deeper than gladness, to which it is akin, nobler and more enduring than pleasure. Gaiety is more superficial than joy, more demonstrative than gladness.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- happiness To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness.
- elation Elation and despair ebbed and flowed in her.
- gladness The rose and the thorn, and sorrow and gladness are linked together.
- joyfulness I never consider ease and joyfulness as the purpose of life itself.
- pleasure Tom derives pleasure from helping disabled people.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| joy | rising | |
| happiness | rising | |
| elation | rising | |
| gladness | rising | |
| joyfulness | rising | |
| pleasure | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- glee1
- 5 letters
- cheer1, bliss1, mirth1, exult2
- 7 letters
- delight2, ecstasy3, rejoice2, rapture2, elation3, gayness2, gladden2, jollity, joyness
- 8 letters
- pleasure2, felicity4, hilarity4, gladness
- 9 letters
- happiness3, merriment, beatitude
- 10 letters
- exuberance4, joyfulness
- 11 letters
- blessedness3, delectation
- 12 letters
- cheerfulness3
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (exult2 = 2 syllables).