Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness.
- n. The expression or manifestation of such feeling.
- n. A source or an object of pleasure or satisfaction: their only child, their pride and joy.
- v. To take great pleasure; rejoice.
- v. Archaic To fill with ecstatic happiness, pleasure, or satisfaction.
- v. Archaic To enjoy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An emotion of pleasure, generally sudden, caused by the gratification of any passion or desire; ardent happiness arising from present or expected good; exultant satisfaction; exhilaration of spirits; gladness; delight.
- n. A source of enjoyment or rejoicing; that which causes gladness or happiness.
- n. Diversion; festivity.
- n. An occasional name of the plant Ranunculus arvensis.
- n. Synonyms Pleasure, Delight, etc. (see gladness); Glee, etc. (see hilarity); happiness, felicity, rapture, bliss.
- To take or feel joy; rejoice; be glad; exult.
- To give joy to;cause to rejoice; gladden; delight.
- To enjoy; possess with pleasure, or have pleasure in the possession of.
- To wish joy to; felicitate; congratulate.
- n. In astrology, an inferior fortitude, as when a planet is in the dignities of another planet congenial to him.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable The feeling of happiness, extreme cheerfulness.
- n. countable An activity etc which causes this feeling.
- v. intransitive To feel joy, to rejoice.
- v. transitive, archaic To enjoy.
- v. transitive, obsolete To give joy to; to congratulate.
- v. transitive, obsolete To gladden; to make joyful; to exhilarate.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; pleasurable feelings or emotions caused by success, good fortune, and the like, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exhilaration of spirits; delight.
- n. That which causes joy or happiness.
- n. The sign or exhibition of joy; gayety; mirth; merriment; festivity.
- v. To rejoice; to be glad; to delight; to exult.
- v. obsolete To give joy to; to congratulate.
- v. obsolete To gladden; to make joyful; to exhilarate.
- v. obsolete To enjoy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the emotion of great happiness
- v. make glad or happy
- v. feel happiness or joy
- n. something or someone that provides a source of happiness
Etymologies
- Middle English joye, from Old French joie, from Late Latin gaudia, neuter plural (mistaken as feminine singular) of gaudium ("joy"), from gaudēre ("to be glad, rejoice"). Displaced native Middle English wunne (from Old English wynn), Middle Englishhight, hught ("joy, hope") (from Old English hyht), Middle English rot, root ("joy, delight") (from Old English rōt), Middle English murȝe murghe ("joy, mirth") (from Old English myrg ("joy, mirth")), Middle English gleo ("joy, glee") (from Old English glēow, glīw ("glee")), Middle English blisse ("joy, bliss") (from Old English blisse, blīþs). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English joie, from Old French, from Latin gaudia, pl. of gaudium, joy, from gaudēre, to rejoice; see gāu- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“With panting joy that she was there at last, joy that overcame all distress, Maggie neared the front of the house.”
“Not, however, in all kinds of joy, for the _joy of the hypocrite_ is _but for a moment_, [1] that is to say, lasts but for a moment.”
“Oh, I get such joy, such delicious _joy_ from life. ”
“The word joy or joyfulness is mentioned more than 180 times in the Old and New Testaments.”
“Even as the pain pierces my chest and my tears splash upon his brow, the joy is there, the love is there, keeping my hand pressed upon his back and under his cheek, pulling him to me, ever closer, his gurgles and sighs and the sweet smell of his skin a balm for the pain.”
“Smiles, laughter, flowers … these people are being captured on the happiest day of their lives, and their joy is absolutely infectious.”
“Lord thy will, not mine be done", then you have gained the triumph and the joy is yours, — that is, the "all in all" of Sanctification, believe”
Letter from Young John Allen to Mollie Houston,Febrary 14, 1857
“The rainbow seemed like a good sign, and Pascal loved the word joy.”
“How does one, in the presence of this poem, feel filled with the spirit of St. Augustine, the nothingness of what we call joy, happiness, glory, here below, -- delights of a moment, which at most only aid us to traverse in a dream this valley of tears!”
“The feeling which I call joy may feel just like the one which you call despair.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘joy’.
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Programming Languages
The last time someone tried this theme, it was a closed list with only two words; time to make amends. Scripting languages, etc. are also fair game...
c, c++, java, pascal, delphi, python, perl, lisp, algol, cobol, ada, apl and 121 more...
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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POL - What is Mitt talking about?
Key terms from Mitt Romney's election campaign
good and generous..., hard fought election, go back to work, optimistic and po..., confident in the ..., optimism, uniquely American, nation of immigrants, want a better life, life in that plac..., pursuit of the ri..., richness of this ... and 369 more...
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Words Associated With Jesus
Words that indentify Jesus and His Salvation to those who seek Him.
hope, grace, love, faith, salvation, truth, eternity, heaven, god, holy spirit, bible, scripture and 191 more...
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Common English Words That Are Also Fi...
art, bob, bill, grace, hope, john, heather, pat, amber, jack, dale, glen and 170 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...deserve, deserve better, destiny, determination, determine, determine the wil..., dialogue, differentiation, difficult question, disappointments, diverse, diversity and 751 more...
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One word book titles
More popular books often have shorter titles. Here is a list of one word book titles
blink, Freakonomics, roots, sugar, banjo, rising, cane, crave, emotions, love, until, dune and 118 more...
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Imbible Code ✞
Christian word branding; common English word-associatives connected to Bible terminology or scripture.
I also have a general Bible-word list.god, father, son, trinity, sacrament, knowledge, serpent, flood, evil, good, spirit, revelation and 118 more...
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Describing People
eye, hair, mouth, nose, tooth, head, face, arm, hand, finger, lip, leg and 212 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Freedom to Read
freedom, read, liberty, success, enjoyment, learning, skill, ability, accomplishment, achievement, intellectual, joy and 11 more...
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slcatlett's list
Favorite Words
joy, treasure, adventure, happy, noontide, playing footsie, creation, toasty, greetings, surprise, connectivity, imagination and 8 more...
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Girls I would go out with
felicity, may, june, april, penny, joy, harmony, your mom, asia the invincible, durga devi, orlando, amrapali and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for joy.
bilby
'I have no name;
I am but two days old.'
What shall I call thee?
'I happy am,
Joy is my name.'
Sweet joy befall thee!
- William Blake, 'Infant Joy'. Nov 1, 2008