joyful
Americanadjective
-
full of joy, as a person or one's heart; glad; delighted.
- Antonyms:
- melancholy
-
showing or expressing joy, as looks, actions, or speech.
-
causing or bringing joy, as an event, a sight, or news; delightful.
the joyful announcement of their marriage.
adjective
-
full of joy; elated
-
expressing or producing joy
a joyful look
a joyful occasion
Other Word Forms
- joyfully adverb
- joyfulness noun
- overjoyful adjective
- overjoyfully adverb
- overjoyfulness noun
- unjoyful adjective
- unjoyfully adverb
Etymology
Origin of joyful
Explanation
Someone who's joyful is very happy. A joyful child will laugh with delight. When you experience the feeling of joy, you're joyful. For many people, their wedding day, the birth of their children, or simply a beautiful summer afternoon can all be joyful occasions. To be joyful is beyond being happy — there is delight and a kind of bliss involved in feeling joyful. The noun joy is at the root of joyful, from the Old French joie with its Latin root of gaudere, "rejoice."
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.
"You rejoice and cry, and you tremble inside from the emotion -- seeing those eyes that are both sad and joyful and filled with tears," she told AFP during a recent prisoner exchange.
From Barron's • Mar. 18, 2026
What should have been a joyful moment turned into a nightmare when doctors warned the pregnancy was at serious risk and the baby might not survive.
From BBC • Mar. 17, 2026
Bolding, who goes by Disco Day Designs, calls herself “a joyful creator who loves to intentionally transform spaces.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026
Bolding’s joyful daisies decorated the Sidecca tote bag given to customers at November’s reopening, just before December’s intense rainstorms.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026
A woman who could have been an Oklahoma mom opened the door, joyful and alive like she’d just walked out of the ball pit at McDonald’s.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
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.
