felicity
noun
the state of being happy, especially in a high degree; bliss.
felicity
1 American
[fi-lis-i-tee]
/ fɪˈlɪs ɪ ti /
noun
-
felicities
plural
-
the state of being happy, especially in a high degree; bliss.
marital felicity.
-
an instance of this.
-
a source of happiness.
-
a skillful faculty.
felicity of expression.
-
an instance or display of this.
the many felicities of the poem.
-
Archaic. good fortune.
Felicity
2
American
[fi-lis-i-tee]
/ fɪˈlɪs ɪ ti /
Also
Felicita
noun
felicity
British
/ fɪˈlɪsɪtɪ /
noun
-
happiness; joy
-
a cause of happiness
-
an appropriate expression or style
-
the quality or display of such expressions or style
-
philosophy appropriateness (of a speech act). The performative I appoint you ambassador can only possess felicity if uttered by one in whom the authority for such appointments is vested
Synonym Usage
See happiness.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of felicity
1350–1400; Middle English felicite (from Anglo-French ) from Latin fēlīcitās, equivalent to fēlīci- (stem of fēlīx ) “happy” + -tās -ty 2
Explanation
Felicity is a state of happiness or the quality of joy. Sitting on the roof with a telescope and iced tea on a clear, starry night is one way to find perfect felicity — a happy place. Felicity comes from the Latin fēlīcitās, meaning "happiness." A synonym for felicity is "blissfulness." People, places, and things can have felicity: "His personality was so warm and full of felicity that we felt at ease the minute we met him." Or you can be in a state of felicity: "A full stomach, a fluffy couch, and the felicity of a Sunday-afternoon nap."
Vocabulary lists containing felicity
"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Grade 11, List 3
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 8–13
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Blackhawk’s account of Native Americans over the past five centuries is among five nominees for the Mark Lynton History Prize, a $10,000 award given for work which “combines intellectual distinction with felicity of expression.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2024
He argued that dirty streets were a welcome sign of prosperity — "a necessary evil, inseparable from the felicity of London."
From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2021
“That may be the chief reason many of us love cats. They possess as their birthright a felicity humans regularly fail to attain.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 24, 2020
As Anne Enright noted years ago, “Hadley, for all the felicity of her prose style, is an immensely subversive writer.”
From The Guardian ● Feb. 9, 2019
He can turn effortlessly from the carnage of war into the felicity of a woman washing her hair in a mountain stream.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
Felicity, now mid-career, remembers one horror story from her first job as a teenager.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
Born on 8 May, 1947 in Cheltenham, Dame Felicity was musical from an early age.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
Felicity makes clear that her loyalty is to her future husband, though she keeps everyone against their will at this emergency summit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2026
“Burn After Reading,” and lastly, it’s a deep cut, there’s this movie called “Like Crazy,” starring Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
All of Cincinnati had come out to hear Felicity Roses, not little old me.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Amid these felicities run the contradictions and tensions that have animated film since its inception.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 13, 2022
Just a few minutes into “Moonlight,” Jenkins has already created a masterwork, one in which the intensity of emotional experience arises from the nearly microscopic observational felicities that fill the film.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 28, 2016
Forman's movie has its felicities, but the Altman/Doctorow project must surely take its place among the greatest movies never made.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2015
There are felicities of line, gesture, grouping and humor.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2015
We must endeavor to smile not just with the face upon the sweet felicities of others, but with the heart.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
