happiness

happiness
/hap"ee nis/, n.
1. the quality or state of being happy.
2. good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.
[1520-30; HAPPY + -NESS]
Syn. 1, 2. pleasure, joy, exhilaration, bliss, contentedness, delight, enjoyment, satisfaction. HAPPINESS, BLISS, CONTENTMENT, FELICITY imply an active or passive state of pleasure or pleasurable satisfaction. HAPPINESS results from the possession or attainment of what one considers good: the happiness of visiting one's family. BLISS is unalloyed happiness or supreme delight: the bliss of perfect companionship. CONTENTMENT is a peaceful kind of happiness in which one rests without desires, even though every wish may not have been gratified: contentment in one's surroundings. FELICITY is a formal word for happiness of an especially fortunate or intense kind: to wish a young couple felicity in life.
Ant. 1. misery.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Happiness — • The primary meaning of this term in all the leading European languages seems to involve the notion of good fortune, good chance, good happening Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Happiness     Happiness …   Catholic encyclopedia

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  • happiness — happiness,[/p] felicity, beatitude, blessedness, bliss all denote the enjoyment or pleasurable satisfaction that goes with well being. Happiness is the generic term applicable to almost any state of enjoyment or pleasurable satisfaction… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • happiness — (n.) 1520s, good fortune, from HAPPY (Cf. happy) + NESS (Cf. ness). Meaning pleasant and contented mental state is from 1590s. Phrase greatest happiness for the greatest number was in Hutcheson (1725) …   Etymology dictionary

  • happiness — index welfare Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • happiness — [n] high spirits, satisfaction beatitude, blessedness, bliss, cheer, cheerfulness, cheeriness, content, contentment, delectation, delight, delirium, ecstasy, elation, enchantment, enjoyment, euphoria, exhilaration, exuberance, felicity, gaiety,… …   New thesaurus

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