jollity
Americannoun
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jolly or merry mood, condition, or activity; gaiety.
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jollities, jolly festivities.
noun
Synonym Usage
See mirth.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of jollity
1250–1300; Middle English jolite, from Old French, equivalent to joli(f) “gay” ( see jolly) + -te -ty 2
Explanation
Use the noun jollity to describe having fun and being in an extremely good mood, like the jollity you feel when you are with your best friends at your favorite amusement park. You can see the word jolly in jollity and that is a big clue that it means "full of cheer and good will." We might say that Jolly Old Saint Nicholas — Santa Claus — is the king of jollity. But you can join his court — you are the picture of jollity when you are laughing uncontrollably with good friends or whooping it up at a Country Western dance. We are talking mirth and merriment: that's jollity.
Vocabulary lists containing jollity
100 SAT Words Beginning with "J," "K," and "L"
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 11
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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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.
Some leading Jollity Building denizens: �Acid Test Ike, who manages punch-drunk fighters.
From Time Magazine Archive
To promote means to cheat anyone "of a dollar, or any fraction or multiple thereof." and the essence of praise in the Jollity Building is, "he has promoted some very smart people."
From Time Magazine Archive
Mean while welcom Joy, and Feast, Midnight shout, and revelry, Tipsie dance, and Jollity.
From Bulchevy's Book of English Verse by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
This is the home of Jollity and Good-fellowship; this is the place from which Care is banished; this is the happy corner where the social glass is dispensed.
From The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions Joints In Our Social Armour by Runciman, James
About Three, when they were in the midst of their Jollity, one of the Scouts brought Word, that he had discovered a Party of white Men, who were coming up the Mountain.
From A Voyage to Cacklogallinia With a Description of the Religion, Policy, Customs and Manners of That Country by Brunt, Captain Samuel
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.
