happily
Americanadverb
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in a happy manner; with pleasure.
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by good fortune; providentially; luckily.
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felicitously; appropriately; aptly.
a happily turned phrase.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of happily
A Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at happy, -ly
Explanation
Do something happily and you'll be cheerful and lighthearted. It can lift your spirits just to hear your friend whistling happily as she walks down the sidewalk with a smile on her face. If you're happy to do something, you'll do it happily. Most of us will happily finish that last piece of cake or happily cuddle a tiny puppy. A second meaning of this adverb is "fortunately," so you could say, "Happily, I shut the front door before your cat got out!" This definition dates from the late 14th century — earlier, people used happily to mean "accidentally." And of course the very happiest stories end with "they lived happily ever after."
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.
They weren’t as old as I was when I gained a stepfather, but happily well beyond a plausible stepmother phase.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Related: My grandpa retired happily at 70 with $750K after working as a missionary.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
On a Saturday, I will happily get up at 6 a.m. with coffee to babysit yeasted cinnamon rolls or start whisking hollandaise.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026
I’m grateful a little bit of Bob’s glamour sits happily on my Barbie shelf at home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
It isn’t as if we were going to have some happily ever after!
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
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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.
