pleasure
Americannoun
-
pleasures
plural
-
the state or feeling of being pleased.
- Synonyms:
- delectation, gladness, happiness
-
enjoyment or satisfaction derived from what is to one's liking; gratification; delight.
-
worldly or frivolous enjoyment.
the pursuit of pleasure.
-
recreation or amusement; diversion; enjoyment.
Are you traveling on business or for pleasure?
-
sensual gratification.
- Synonyms:
- voluptuousness
-
a cause or source of enjoyment or delight.
It was a pleasure to see you.
-
pleasurable quality.
the pleasure of his company.
-
one's will, desire, or choice.
to make known one's pleasure.
- Synonyms:
- predilection, inclination, wish, preference
verb (used with object)
-
pleasures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pleasured,
past participle, past
-
pleasuring
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
pleasures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pleasured,
past participle, past
-
pleasuring
present participle
-
to take pleasure; delight.
I pleasure in your company.
-
to seek pleasure, as by taking a holiday.
noun
-
an agreeable or enjoyable sensation or emotion
the pleasure of hearing good music
-
something that gives or affords enjoyment or delight
his garden was his only pleasure
-
-
amusement, recreation, or enjoyment
-
( as modifier )
a pleasure boat
pleasure ground
-
-
euphemistic sexual gratification or enjoyment
he took his pleasure of her
-
a person's preference or choice
verb
Synonym Usage
Pleasure, enjoyment, delight, joy refer to the feeling of being pleased and happy. Pleasure is the general term: to take pleasure in beautiful scenery. Enjoyment is a quiet sense of well-being and pleasurable satisfaction: enjoyment at sitting in the shade on a warm day. Delight is a high degree of pleasure, usually leading to active expression of it: delight at receiving a hoped-for letter. Joy is a feeling of delight so deep and so lasting that one radiates happiness and expresses it spontaneously: joy at unexpected good news.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pleasuresimple
-
pleasuressimple
-
have pleasuredperfect
-
has pleasuredperfect
-
am pleasuringprogressive
-
are pleasuringprogressive
-
is pleasuringprogressive
-
have been pleasuringperfect progressive
-
has been pleasuringperfect progressive
Past
-
pleasuredsimple
-
had pleasuredperfect
-
was pleasuringprogressive
-
were pleasuringprogressive
-
had been pleasuringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pleasure
First recorded in 1325–75; late Middle English ( see please, -ure); replacing Middle English plaisir, from Middle French (noun use of infinitive), from Latin placēre “to please”
Explanation
Pleasure is a general term for good feelings. People get pleasure from eating, sleeping, watching TV, or anything else they enjoy. Pleasure is the opposite of pain. Pain feels bad, but pleasure feels good. People talk about sexual pleasure, but that's just one kind. People get pleasure from delicious foods, great movies, beautiful music, and all sorts of other things. Something as small as a comfortable chair and something as big as your candidate being elected President can bring pleasure. If you had a good time hosting your friends for lunch, you can tell them "It was a pleasure."
Vocabulary lists containing pleasure
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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:
The loudest noise I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
She admits she has worried whether dressing modestly will make it harder for her to succeed in this industry, but she finds pleasure in it too.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
But while the subjects of pleasure and open-mindedness captivate her, on screen Anderson is not letting the industry pigeonhole her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Augenbraun acknowledges that all this preparation can take away some of the pleasure of being outdoors and that, ultimately, awareness may simply be the best defense we have at our disposal.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
And with a groan of love, relief, and pleasure, she reached the mill wheel and thrust her muzzle into the reaching hand of the boy who clung there.
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
What is strange is the air of grim discovery around it, as though the pleasures of cooking with recognizable ingredients had only recently been recovered from a hostile laboratory.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
Most people were eager to share their own experiences: the pains and the pleasures of aging, what they look forward to and reflect back upon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Scott Kennedy, a U.S. expat artist who helped on the mural project, called the experience one of the great pleasures of his life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2026
Skip the next two paragraphs if you want to hold onto the film’s purest pleasures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
So I tell him about my life at the convent, its simple routines and pleasures.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Mayor Bill de Blasio let out a pleasured tweet of thanks, saluting the State Senate’s co-leaders, the Democrat Klein and that noted progressive, the Republican Dean Skelos.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2014
Last week he pleasured newshawks by presenting his weekly press conference with two enormous South Carolina melons, 3 ft. long and weighing, by report, 80 Ib. each.
From Time Magazine Archive
The newlyweds pleasured off to Italy, where Paul, who wanted to become a concert singer, studied.
From Time Magazine Archive
Schoolma'am Marie Campbell, who put together this book, was pleasured a heap to sit alistening to the olden tales and to write them down so they would keep.
From Time Magazine Archive
Just as it is with human Obligations, when we have served our own Turns: After this has pleasured our Eyes, it washes our Kitchen, and passes through the Sink into the common Shore.
From Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. by Desiderius Erasmus
The act set Yellowstone aside as “a pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2022
"Heartbroken at the passing of Bert — a talented, kind young man who I had the pleasuring of working with numerous times on #LetsStayTogether," she tweeted.
From Fox News ● Nov. 9, 2020
They videotaped one year’s pleasuring, he says, and “one pig caught its hoof in a grate and had a little drop of blood on its hoof.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 6, 2011
In that year Congress designated a vast area in what are now the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming as a public "pleasuring ground."
From Time Magazine Archive
A whole family had come in from Kioto for the day's pleasuring.
From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Rudyard Kipling
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.
