hap·py

(hăp′ē)

adj. hap·pi·er, hap·pi·est

1. Enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy. See Synonyms at glad.

2. Cheerful; willing: happy to help.

3. Characterized by good luck. See Synonyms at fortunate.

4. Being especially well-adapted; felicitous: a happy turn of phrase.

a. Characterized by a spontaneous or obsessive inclination to use something. Often used in combination: trigger-happy.

b. Enthusiastic about or involved with to a disproportionate degree. Often used in combination: money-happy; clothes-happy.

[Middle English, from hap, luck; see hap.]

hap′pi·ly adv.

hap′pi·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

hap•pi•ness

(ˈhæp i nɪs)

n.

1. the quality or state of being happy.

2. good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.

[1520–30]

hapless, happiness - Hapless means one is lacking hap, "good fortune, luck"; the words happy and happiness also have the root "hap."

Happiness

See Also: CONTENTMENT, JOY, PLEASURE

All happiness is a chance encounter and at every moment presents itself to you like a beggar by the roadside —André Gide
The best advice on the art of being happy is about as easy to follow as advice to be well when one is sick —Madame Swetchine
See Also: DIFFICULTY
Dry happiness is like dry bread. We eat, but we do not dine —Victor Hugo
In Les Miserables, the hero, Jean Valjean, continues: “I wish for the superfluous, for the useless, for the extravagant, for the too much, for that which is not good for anything.”
Ecstatic as a scientist who had just discovered the key to immortality —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Elated as though he had stumbled on a treasure —Brian Moore
A gay, light happiness, like bubbles in wine held up against the sun —Ben Ames Williams
Glowed with happiness, like a child with expectations of a birthday party —Frank Swinnerton
The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history —George Eliot
Happiness as wholesome as honey on the comb —John Braine
Happiness choked my throat like an anthem. It flowed through me like a river from the beginning of the column to its end —Aharon Megged
(In the midst of happiness grows a seed of unhappiness.) Happiness consumes itself like a flame. (It cannot burn forever) —August Strindberg
Happiness … descended upon her heart, like a cloud of morning dew in a dell of wild-flowers —Walter De La Mare
Happiness … filled her brain like wine —William Dean Howells
Happiness flits from branch to twig to branch like a hummingbird —Delmore Schwartz
Happiness is falling on us out of the sky … like a blanket of snow —Jean Giraudoux
Happiness is like a sunbeam, which the least shadow intercepts —Chinese proverb
Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated —Tryon Edwards
Happiness is like time and space; we make and measure it ourselves —George Du Maurier
Happiness, like air, is not something you can put in a bottle —Anon
See Also: AIR
Happiness, like the pink and white anemones of my childhood, is a flower that must not be picked —Andre Maurois
The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent —Jean Baptiste Racine
Happiness struck her like a shower of rain —Eudora Welty
Happiness … was there like light seen through moving leaves, like touching a warm stone —Sumner Locke Elliott
Happy and thoughtless as an apple on a tree —George Garrett
Happy as a butterfly in a garden full of sunshine and flowers —Louisa May Alcott
Happy as a clam —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
A variation of this found in Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms is, “Happy as a clam at high water.”
Happy as a couple of linebackers after winning a high school game —Marge Piercy
Happy as a couple of cherrystone clams —George Garrett
Happy as a dog with a bone —Anon
Happy as a lover —William Wordsworth
(I am )happy as a mother whose good baby sleeps —May Sarton
Happy as a pig in clover —American colloquialism
In the American army this gave way to “Being happy as a pig in shit.”
Happy as a robin when he trills —Anon American song “Love Letters”
Happy as a swallow —Richard Ford
Happy as a tick in a dog’s ear —Jay Parini
Happy as trees that find a wind to sway them —Sara Teasdale
He loved happiness like I love tea —Eudora Welty
When it [happiness] comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep —Willa Cather
I was high as taxes —Loren D. Estleman
I was like a river in flood … drowning in my own happiness, and buoyed up by it at the same time —Eugene Ionesco
Live together … as happily as two lobsters in a saucepan, two bugs on a muscle —Dylan Thomas
See Also: RELATIONSHIPS
Looked like the sun at the zenith —Carlos Baker
Happy-looking as if he’s just heard the foreman say, “Not guilty” —William Slavens McNutt
Looking for happiness is like clutching the shadow or chasing the wind —Japanese proverb
See Also: ELUSIVENESS
Looks like he is a kid holding his first puppy —John Wainwright
Moments of happiness hang like pearls on the finest silken thread, certain to be snapped, the pearls scattered away —Joan Chase
On the brink of our happiness we stop like someone on a drunk starting to weep —Galway Kinnell
The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn —Samuel Johnson, March 21, 1776
The vicissitudes of life touch him [a happy man] lightly, like the wind in the aspen-tree —Anton Chekhov
Wore his new happiness like an advertisement —Nancy Huddleston Packer

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	happiness - state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy felicity emotional state, spirit - the state of a person's emotions (especially with regard to pleasure or dejection); "his emotional state depended on her opinion"; "he was in good spirits"; "his spirit rose" beatification, beatitude, blessedness - a state of supreme happiness radiance - an attractive combination of good health and happiness; "the radiance of her countenance" unhappiness - state characterized by emotions ranging from mild discontentment to deep grief
	2.	happiness - emotions experienced when in a state of well-being feeling - the experiencing of affective and emotional states; "she had a feeling of euphoria"; "he had terrible feelings of guilt"; "I disliked him and the feeling was mutual" bonheur - (French) happiness and good humor gladfulness, gladness, gladsomeness - experiencing joy and pleasure gaiety, merriment - a gay feeling rejoicing - a feeling of great happiness belonging - happiness felt in a secure relationship; "with his classmates he felt a sense of belonging" blitheness, cheerfulness - a feeling of spontaneous good spirits; "his cheerfulness made everyone feel better" contentment - happiness with one's situation in life sadness, unhappiness - emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being

happiness

noun pleasure, delight, joy, cheer, satisfaction, prosperity, ecstasy, enjoyment, bliss, felicity, exuberance, contentment, wellbeing, high spirits, elation, gaiety, jubilation, merriment, cheerfulness, gladness, beatitude, cheeriness, blessedness, light-heartedness I think she was looking for happiness.
depression, distress, grief, misery, sadness, sorrow, misfortune, unhappiness, annoyance, despondency, low spirits

Quotations
"Happiness depends upon ourselves" [Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics]
"Happiness to me is wine,"
"Effervescent, superfine."
"Full of tang and fiery pleasure,"
"Far too hot to leave me leisure"
"For a single thought beyond it" [Amy Lowell Sword Blades and Poppy Seeds]
"Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self" [Iris Murdoch The Nice and the Good]
"To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others" [Albert Camus The Fall]
"I am happy and content because I think I am" [Alain René Lesage Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane]
"Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so" [John Stuart Mill Autobiography]
"Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it" [Fyodor Dostoevsky A Diary of a Writer]
"In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it" [Franz Kafka The Collected Aphorisms]
"Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination" [Immanuel Kant Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics]
"Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things" [La Rochefoucauld Maxims]
"Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything useful and nothing indispensable. I find everything wonderful and nothing miraculous. I reverence the body. I avoid first causes like the plague" [Norman Douglas South Wind]
"Happiness lies in the fulfilment of the spirit through the body" [Cyril Connolly The Unquiet Grave]
"We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it" [George Bernard Shaw Candida]
"What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree" [Sigmund Freud Civilization and its Discontents]
"Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly often attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults" [Thomas Szasz The Second Sin]
"Nothing ages like happiness" [Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband]
"Happiness is no laughing matter" [Richard Whately Apophthegms]
"Happiness is enjoyed only in proportion as it is known; and such is the state or folly of man, that it is known only by experience of its contrary" [Samuel Johnson The Adventurer]
"happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another" [Ambrose Bierce The Devil's Dictionary]
"Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length" [Robert Frost The Witness Tree]

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

happiness

noun

A condition of supreme well-being and good spirits:

beatitude, blessedness, bliss, cheer, cheerfulness, felicity, gladness, joy, joyfulness.

Translations

سعادةسَعَادَةسَعادَه

štěstí

glædelykke

GlückGlücklichkeitFreude

ευτυχία

felicidad alegría dicha

onnionnellisuus

bonheur joie

sreća

boldogságszerencse

hamingja

felicità gioia allegria beatitudine contentezza

幸福

행복

счастье удача радость

sreča

lycka

ความสุข

mutluluk

niềm hạnh phúc

幸福快乐

happiness

[ˈhæpɪnɪs] N (= contentment) → felicidad f; (= cheerfulness) → alegría f
we wish you every happiness → te deseamos toda la felicidad del mundo
if you want to know real happiness → si quieres ser verdaderamente feliz

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

happiness

[ˈhæpinɪs] n → bonheur m

happiness

n → Glück nt; (= feeling of contentment) → Zufriedenheit f; (= cheerfulness) → Heiterkeit f, → Fröhlichkeit f; the happiness of his expression → sein glücklicher or freudiger Gesichtsausdruck

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

happiness

[ˈhæpɪnɪs] n → felicità, contentezza, gioia

happy

(ˈhӕpi) adjective

1. having or showing a feeling of pleasure or contentment. a happy smile; I feel happy today.

2. willing. I'd be happy to help you.

3. lucky. By a happy chance I have the key with me.

ˈhappiness noun

ˈhappily adverb

The child smiled happily; Happily, (= Fortunately,) she arrived home safely.

ˌhappy-go-ˈlucky adjective

not worrying about what might happen. cheerful and happy-go-lucky.

happy medium

a sensible middle course between two extreme positions. I need to find the happy medium between starving and over-eating.

happiness

→ سَعَادَة štěstí glæde Glück ευτυχία felicidad onni bonheur sreća felicità 幸福 행복 geluk lykke szczęście felicidade счастье lycka ความสุข mutluluk niềm hạnh phúc 快乐

happiness

n. alegría, felicidad.

happiness

n felicidad f