glad
1 Americanadjective
-
gladder,
comparative
-
gladdest
superlative
-
feeling joy or pleasure; delighted; pleased: glad that you are here.
glad about the good news;
glad that you are here.
- Antonyms:
- sad
-
accompanied by or causing joy or pleasure: glad tidings.
a glad occasion;
glad tidings.
- Antonyms:
- sad
-
characterized by or showing cheerfulness, joy, or pleasure, as looks or utterances.
- Antonyms:
- sad
-
very willing.
I'll be glad to give him your message.
verb (used with object)
noun
adjective
-
happy and pleased; contented
-
causing happiness or contentment
-
very willing
he was glad to help
-
happy or pleased to have
glad of her help
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of glad1
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English glæd; cognate with Old Norse glathr “bright, glad,” Dutch glad, German glatt “smooth”; akin to Latin glaber “smooth”
Origin of glad2
First recorded in 1920–25; by shortening
Explanation
Glad is how you feel when you hear that something nice happened to someone you care about, or when you learn you got an A on that test you studied so hard for. It means happy or pleased. Glad doesn't quite mean jumping for joy — it's more a state of contentment and pleasure. You're glad to hear from an old friend who calls you out of the blue and glad to meet your friendly new neighbors. Glad can also mean "eagerly willing" so you might say, "I'll be glad to taste test those brownies for you!" The Old English source is glæd, "gleaming, joyous, or gracious."
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:
"We are glad that Rooppur is known to the world, and my friends and I hope that we will work at the plant after graduating from engineering schools," he added.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
After one trying day, she writes, “he just lay down on the couch and poured out all his anguish. I know he was glad I was home.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Schmitt: I’m glad you’re trying to rehabilitate the witness, but it’s not your time.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2026
And frankly, the happy prime minister would likely be only too glad to talk for as long as necessary about those favourite subjects.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
The morning after the accident, however, he is glad to see his mother and uncle when they arrive from New Hampshire.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
And I’m gladder still that by the end of your letter you realized what question you were really asking.
From Slate ● Jan. 24, 2021
I was even gladder to see his look of awe, his happy suspension of disbelief in the face of such adult wizardry.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 29, 2019
No holdouts, which makes Carroll’s heart even gladder.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 30, 2016
I am glad to have finally seen it, but gladder still that my bed is not a bus ride away.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 25, 2010
“Sir Peter is a witty man and a shrewd trader, but if he had admired our things as you do, we would have been gladder to let him have them.”
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
Across the land this Christmas season, churches old and new, grand or unpretentious, prepare for the gladdest occasion of the Christian calendar.
From Time Magazine Archive
Famed in Los Angeles as the gladdest glad-hander of them all, Norris Poulson made the mistake of trying to slug it out with Yorty.
From Time Magazine Archive
For many an entrepreneurial Pop the gladdest moment of a lifetime is when his No.1 son enters the family firm.
From Time Magazine Archive
She had run over to me and was standing down below with the gladdest face.
From "The Stars Beneath Our Feet" by David Barclay Moore
The next morning was indeed a brilliant one—the earth refreshed by rain, the verdure more brilliant, the mountain streams grown fuller; all the landscape seemed to shine forth in its gladdest features.
From Arthur O'Leary His Wanderings And Ponderings In Many Lands by Charles James Lever
The doctor waved his hand to the Royal Orchestra, who immediately struck up with Jesu Christes Milde Moder—since Dr. Bartholomew’s book had recommended that madmen should be gladded with instruments.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Sithence I writ what goeth afore, have we all been rare gladded by Walter’s coming, which was just when the dusk had fallen.
From Joyce Morrell's Harvest The Annals of Selwick Hall by Emily Sarah Holt
This news so gladded the heart of Corydon, that he should not be put out of his farm, that putting off his shepherd's bonnet, he did her all the reverence that he might.
From Rosalynde or, Euphues' Golden Legacy by Edward Chauncey Baldwin
This is their country mode; but I do ensure thee I had been little gladded for leave to kiss the dust; and it doth yet tickle mine ears whensoever I hear it.
From Robin Tremayne A Story of the Marian Persecution by Emily Sarah Holt
And they must be gladded with instruments of music, and somedeal be occupied.
From Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus by Robert Steele
God safely quit her of her Burthen, and With gentle Trauaile, to the gladding of Your Highnesse with an Heire King.
From Henry VIII by William Shakespeare
And God give you to know Christ, and send us a happy meeting in that His blessed habitation, unto the great gladding of your most loving and dutiful daughter, Margery Marnell.
From Mistress Margery by Emily Sarah Holt
One day she saw below her in the forest a dear gazelle, gladding her with its soft black eye.
From Cobwebs from an Empty Skull by Ambrose Bierce
But where the devil were you gladding last night, my young master?
From The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas père
Oh, noble is the knotted oak, And sweet the gush of sylvan streams, And good the great sun's gladding beams, The blush of life upon the field, The silent might that mountains wield.
From Rose and Roof-Tree — Poems by George Parsons Lathrop
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.
