

Dictionary Information: Definition Happiness
Thesaurus: Happiness
Description and Meaning: Happiness

  Happiness (Hap"pi*ness) n.
[From Happy.]

1. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity. "All happiness bechance to thee in Milan!" Shak.
3. Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace; -- used especially of language. "Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, For there's a happiness, as well as care." Pope.

Synonyms -- Happiness, Felicity, Blessedness, Bliss. Happiness is generic, and is applied to almost every kind of enjoyment except that of the animal appetites; felicity is a more formal word, and is used more sparingly in the same general sense, but with elevated associations; blessedness is applied to the most refined enjoyment arising from the purest social, benevolent, and religious affections; bliss denotes still more exalted delight, and is applied more appropriately to the joy anticipated in heaven. "O happiness! our being's end and aim!" Pope. "Others in virtue place felicity, But virtue joined with riches and long life; In corporal pleasures he, and careless ease." Milton. "His overthrow heaped happiness upon him; For then, and not till then, he felt himself, And found the blessedness of being little." Shak.

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