gleefully
Americanadverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gleefully
First recorded in 1730–40; gleeful ( def. ) + -ly ( def. )
Explanation
When you do something gleefully, you do it in an extremely happy way. If two kids call to each other gleefully across the playground, there's laughter and delight in their voices. Wedding guests might rush gleefully onto the dance floor when the DJ plays a popular song, and a child who is trick or treating for the first time will often gleefully dress in her ghost costume and even more gleefully watch her plastic pumpkin fill with Halloween candy. The adjective gleeful and related noun glee are at the root of gleefully, all of them sharing the Latin root word gliu, "entertainment, mirth, jest, or play."
Vocabulary lists containing gleefully
Achievement First 6th Grade IA 1 Words
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The Titan's Curse
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Dead End in Norvelt
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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.
Carlin would not be at all surprised that our children’s generation faces corporate heads gleefully replacing human workers with AI.
From Salon • Jul. 6, 2026
Summerween in “Gravity Falls” was more or less the same as regular Halloween — “a night to celebrate pure evil,” as Grunkle Stan puts it gleefully — with trick-or-treating, carved jack-o-watermelons, and a Summerween superstore.
From Salon • Jun. 30, 2026
Hilton gleefully wielded the crunchy mass with one hand as he pointed to the Original Del Taco sign with the other.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
Cora, gleefully twisting the knife after his late night firing, reposted a clip of Betts’s generous compliment on social media.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 27, 2026
I said, squealing and bouncing up and down gleefully.
From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles
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.
