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.
There’s a semantic debate we can have about the word “funneled,” but that glee looks rather goofy now.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
We watched candle-dipping artisans at work with wide eyes, heard the screaming whistle of the authentic steam locomotive train, and perused each room of the Dolly Parton Experience museum with glee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 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
It jumped a perfect arch, its scales shimmering a rainbow, then dived straight down—splashing the king with such glee he could not help laughing aloud.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
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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.
