joy
noun
the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.
joy
1 American
[joi]
/ dʒɔɪ /
noun
-
joys
plural
-
the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.
She felt the joy of seeing her son's success.
- Synonyms:
- rapture
- Antonyms:
- grief, sorrow, unhappiness, misery
-
a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated.
Her prose style is a pure joy.
-
the expression or display of glad feeling; festive gaiety.
-
a state of happiness or felicity.
- Synonyms:
- bliss
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
Joy
2
American
[joi]
/ dʒɔɪ /
Or
Joye
noun
joy
British
/ dʒɔɪ /
noun
-
a deep feeling or condition of happiness or contentment
-
something causing such a feeling; a source of happiness
-
an outward show of pleasure or delight; rejoicing
-
informal success; satisfaction
I went to the bank for a loan, but got no joy
verb
-
(intr) to feel joy
-
obsolete (tr) to make joyful; gladden
joy
Idioms
Synonym Usage
See pleasure.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of joy
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English joy(e), from Old French joie, joye, from Late Latin gaudia, neuter plural (taken as feminine singular) of Latin gaudium “joy,” equivalent to gaud- (base of gaudēre “to be glad”) + -ium -ium
Explanation
Joy is the emotion of pleasure and happiness. Joy can also be the very thing that delights you. You might find great joy in learning new vocabulary. Or not. Joy can also be used as a verb. You can joy in the fact that you have no homework for the weekend. Or, you might want to rejoice when the teacher announces that the test has been canceled. It's a real joy to use the word as an adjective, too. For example, receiving straight A's probably makes you extremely joyful.
Vocabulary lists containing joy
"The Giving Tree"
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Key Words, Unit 5
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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:
Kate O'Connor said her late grandmother "would have been jumping for joy" as the Ireland athlete won gold in the heptathlon at the European Championships in Birmingham.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
How can we find the joy in all of this?
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Or maybe “The Wrong Girls” is simply making an artistic statement about the joy of sloppiness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
You suffer and you cry with them, and also experience their joy, their challenges, their ambitions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Laughter was a forgotten thing, as though their joy had been drowned along with their homes.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Family and friends of Dyer have since been trying to raise $28,000 on GoFundMe to help his wife, Joy, pay for funeral costs, living expenses and therapy sessions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
“For-profit companies that repeatedly cause catastrophic harm must be held accountable, not protected and enriched,” wrote Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivors Network, who is leading the coalition, in the letter to Newsom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
“We engaged Joy with this and we know there’s value there,” Gaetjens explained.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
Joy Sinnott, who works at Meadows Pharmacy on Liverpool Road South near the excavation site, said the issue had caused "chaos".
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
“I miss my room. And my old bed. And the backyard. Joy, who’s gonna feed the hummingbirds?”
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
They can’t address a crowd after a tragedy or bear witness to the joys of raising a child.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
It’s all she grew up knowing, and these days, it’s where some of her deepest friendships and greatest joys are.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
"Human consent is not an impediment to progress. Human consent does not diminish the struggles and the joys of technological innovation or inhuman creativity," Blanchett said at the event in the parliament's library.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
"We wanted it to be a vibrant, living celebration of community. Where we can learn together and share the joys of art and music and sport and play," he said.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
He had been made for royal joys, for the fortunes of a nation.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
