glee
1 Americanverb (used without object)
noun
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a squint.
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an imperfect eye, especially one with a cast.
noun
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great merriment or delight, often caused by someone else's misfortune
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a type of song originating in 18th-century England, sung by three or more unaccompanied voices Compare madrigal
Synonym Usage
See mirth.
Etymology
Origin of glee1
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English glēo; cognate with Old Norse glȳ; akin to glow
Origin of glee2
1250–1300; Middle English glien, gleen; perhaps < Scandinavian; compare Old Norse gljā to shine
Explanation
If you learned that you'd won a trip for four to Disney World, it would be hard to hide your glee. Glee means extreme happiness or delight. Anything that makes you full of joy, so happy you could laugh out loud, fills you with glee. If your favorite football team wins the Super Bowl, your glee will make you cheer, and a kid let loose with a ten dollar bill in a candy shop might dance around with glee. In the 1700s and 1800s, a glee was a song written for men's a cappella singing groups, which were sometimes called glee clubs.
Vocabulary lists containing glee
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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.
Born on Sept. 2, 1943, to John and Mary Ashford, the budding soprano developed her chops singing in the church choir and then in the glee club at Wilbur Wright High School in Detroit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
LONDON—British tabloids could hardly contain their glee when news broke this week that one of their favorite targets—Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—would be returning to the U.K.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
He sticks out his tongue and squeals with glee.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
As the tribunes, Bernardo De Paula’s Brutus and Daniel DeYoung’s Sicinius scheme and rabble-rouse with manipulative glee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
He glanced toward the kitchen, which the flames were consuming with glee, and headed across the living room toward Angel’s bedroom.
From "Forged by Fire" by Sharon M. Draper
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
