happiness
- 1The emotion of feeling happy; a state of joy, gladness, or great pleasure.
Lasting happiness often grows from close friendships rather than from possessions.
His face glowed with happiness as he crossed the finish line.
Oppositeunhappiness
- 2Prosperity, thriving, or general wellbeing, as of a person, family, or nation.
The treaty promised lasting peace and happiness to both realms for a generation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
1776, United States Declaration of IndependenceOppositesuffering
Note
Read the United States Declaration of Independence of 1776 with this sense in mind: "the pursuit of Happiness" stands beside Life and Liberty as a condition of flourishing, not a passing mood. Its opposite here is suffering rather than sadness. Modern readers hear the emotional meaning first, so this archaic use needs a setting such as a nation, a reign or a household before it reads as prosperity.
- 3Good luck; good fortune that falls to a person by favorable chance.
It was by sheer happiness that the messenger reached the gates before they closed.
All happineſſe bechance to thee in Millaine.
c. 1590, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”Similarluck, fortune, felicity
Note
Luck that befalls you is the idea here. Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona (c. 1590–1591) uses it in a parting wish: "All happinesse bechance to thee in Millaine." The verb bechance, to happen to, shows that this happiness arrives from outside, the way fortune does. That sets it apart from the prosperity sense, which is a settled condition. Here it is a stroke of chance, close to fortuity.
Less common meaning
- 4A fortunate elegance or unstudied grace, especially in the use of language.
There is a happiness in his metaphors that more careful writers rarely achieve.
Some Beauties yet, no Precepts can declare, / For there's a Happineſs as well as Care.
1711, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on CriticismNote
Of all the word's meanings, only this one takes an article and a plural: a happiness, small happinesses. Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1711) captures its spirit with "there's a Happiness as well as Care." The line sets a grace that no precept can teach against the polish that diligence earns. Because the sense is obsolete, anyone reviving it to praise a well-placed phrase should make the older meaning plain from context.
Use it in a sentence
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Origin
Formed from 'happy' combined with the suffix '-ness'.