Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Jubilant delight; joy.
- n. Music A part song scored for three or more usually male and unaccompanied voices that was popular in the 18th century.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Exultant or playful exhilaration; demonstrative joy or delight; merriment; mirth; gaiety.
- n. Music; minstrelsy. See gleeman.
- n. A musical instrument.
- n. In music, a composition for three or more solo voices, without accompaniment, usually in two or three contrasted movements, and adapted to any kind of metrical text, not necessarily joyful. The structure of a glee is seldom truly contrapuntal, but considerable independence of the parts is essential; the former characteristic distinguishes it from the madrigal, the latter from the part-song. The glee is essentially of English origin and cultivation, and its best period was from 1760 to 1830. Synonyms Joy, Joviality, etc. (see
hilarity )', exhilaration, jollity, jocularity, sportiveness. - See gley.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable Joy; merriment; mirth; gaiety; particularly, the mirth enjoyed at a feast.
- n. uncountable Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- n. music, countable An unaccompanied part song for three or more solo voices, not necessarily merry.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- n. Joy; merriment; mirth; gayety; paricularly, the mirth enjoyed at a feast.
- n. (Mus.) An unaccompanied part song for three or more solo voices. It is not necessarily gleesome.
WordNet 3.0
- n. great merriment
- n. malicious satisfaction
Etymologies
- From Middle English gle, from Old English glēo, glīġ, glēow, glīw ("glee, pleasure, mirth, play, sport; music; mockery"), from Proto-Germanic *glīwan (“joy, mirth”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlew- (“to joke, make fun, enjoy”). Cognate with Scots gle, glie, glew ("game, play, sport, mirth, joy, rejoicing, entertainment, melody, music"), Old Norse glȳ ("joy, glee, gladness"), Ancient Greek χλεύη (chleúē, "joke, jest, scorn"). A poetic word in Middle English, the word was obsolete by 1500, but revived late 18c. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English gle, entertainment, from Old English glēo; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Having the football team dudes join glee is definitely a good idea.”
“So the hysterical jumping up and down in glee is justified to an extent.”
“As you might suspect, Quinn grows to like being in glee club more than her high-maintenance cheerleading career and presidency of the Celibacy Club.”
“After being told they can't tackle religion in glee club -- one week after being told their performance numbers were too sexed up:”
The Washington Post: 'Glee' tackles religion, swallows grilled cheese
“Sinister scientists rubs his hands together in glee and cackles at the end.”
“Gregor the Slightly just about managed to avoid rubbing his hands in glee as he saw the sword the adventurer had chosen, and even managed to keep from grinning like a madman for more than a couple of seconds.”
“Their glee is retweeted after the jump along with Ashton Kutcher's take on "Jersey Shore," Jon Favreau's reaction upon seeing some "Thor" sets and Peter Facinelli's sparkling plans.”
Conan & Leno, Obama & ‘Lost’ And ‘Jersey Shore’ In Today’s Twitter-Wood » MTV Movies Blog
“Sidelined and full of free time, Sam agrees to join glee club.”
The Huffington Post: Kevin Allen: The Brand-ification of Derrick Rose
“I don't understand how anyone is rolling up their toes in glee that the status quo might win the day.”
“And the Sikalosoft site is back online, no doubt rubbing its hands in glee over all the publicity.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘glee’.
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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Words that can be spelled on an upsid...
Imagine my joy when I was wearing my calculator watch and was first introduced to someone named Leslie - there was exactly enough room on the display for 317537.14.
Edit: I've discove...hi, hello, leslie, sheesh, she, bells, hells, hog, boss, goggles, he, bob and 233 more...
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Funny Laughter Words
Words that speak humor
humor, laugh, funny, laughter, hilarity, guffaw, chortle, giggle, burst, hilarious, happy, chuckle and 66 more...
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Emotions
affection, longing, cheerfulness, pride, optimism, relief, success, suprise, irritation, rage, hope, love and 31 more...
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Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
Scribble, Newfangled, swift, swathe, budget, obstreperous, trickle, rank, covetous, scratch, hunch, dodge and 179 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Really Cool Four-Letter Words
I marvel at the amazing variety of four-letter words in the English language. And that's not even counting really common (to me) words like fuck.
ibis, pelf, sofa, iota, oboe, lava, icon, sped, puha, pulp, puma, kyat and 150 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Favorites
ostensibly, surreptitiously, seriously, apparently, vociferous, guitar, asphalt, glee, glitter, fascinating, asynchronous, cunt and 128 more...
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Words I'd Like to Use Someday
thundersnow, phantasmagoria, mercurial, chimerical, taciturn, paraclete, lapis lazuli, flay, guttersnipe, wonky, misanthrope, kestrel and 583 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, G
grocer, gabanergic, gabardine, gabbro, gaffe, gneiss, grapple, grosgrain, grommet, gratify, gossamer, goofy and 194 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
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pixistix's Words
cumquat, circumlocution, panoply, propinquity, contumely, quietus, fardel, tmesis, tipsy, giddy, trudge, vortex and 211 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Wrapped up in books
I'm reading books. And there are words and phrases I come upon for the first time, or that are used with usages that are new to me.
So, this is just a plain list of those words. Don't expect ...hobble, mackerel, crone, cavort, hoyden, rheumy, scatter, hiss, recoil, trundle, shatter, flaxen and 200 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for glee.

uselessness From The Ladykillers:
"This is perfect. This is more than perfect. I can scarcely contain my glee." Dec 7, 2007
sonofgroucho It is a feelgood word. Dec 5, 2007
rolig Simply saying "glee" makes me feel gleeful. Dec 5, 2007