pleasure
Americannoun
-
pleasures
plural
-
the state or feeling of being pleased.
- Synonyms:
- delectation, gladness, happiness
-
enjoyment or satisfaction derived from what is to one's liking; gratification; delight.
-
worldly or frivolous enjoyment.
the pursuit of pleasure.
-
recreation or amusement; diversion; enjoyment.
Are you traveling on business or for pleasure?
-
sensual gratification.
- Synonyms:
- voluptuousness
-
a cause or source of enjoyment or delight.
It was a pleasure to see you.
-
pleasurable quality.
the pleasure of his company.
-
one's will, desire, or choice.
to make known one's pleasure.
- Synonyms:
- predilection, inclination, wish, preference
verb (used with object)
-
pleasures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pleasured,
past participle, past
-
pleasuring
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
pleasures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pleasured,
past participle, past
-
pleasuring
present participle
-
to take pleasure; delight.
I pleasure in your company.
-
to seek pleasure, as by taking a holiday.
noun
-
an agreeable or enjoyable sensation or emotion
the pleasure of hearing good music
-
something that gives or affords enjoyment or delight
his garden was his only pleasure
-
-
amusement, recreation, or enjoyment
-
( as modifier )
a pleasure boat
pleasure ground
-
-
euphemistic sexual gratification or enjoyment
he took his pleasure of her
-
a person's preference or choice
verb
Synonym Usage
Pleasure, enjoyment, delight, joy refer to the feeling of being pleased and happy. Pleasure is the general term: to take pleasure in beautiful scenery. Enjoyment is a quiet sense of well-being and pleasurable satisfaction: enjoyment at sitting in the shade on a warm day. Delight is a high degree of pleasure, usually leading to active expression of it: delight at receiving a hoped-for letter. Joy is a feeling of delight so deep and so lasting that one radiates happiness and expresses it spontaneously: joy at unexpected good news.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pleasuresimple
-
pleasuressimple
-
have pleasuredperfect
-
has pleasuredperfect
-
am pleasuringprogressive
-
are pleasuringprogressive
-
is pleasuringprogressive
-
have been pleasuringperfect progressive
-
has been pleasuringperfect progressive
Past
-
pleasuredsimple
-
had pleasuredperfect
-
was pleasuringprogressive
-
were pleasuringprogressive
-
had been pleasuringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pleasure
First recorded in 1325–75; late Middle English ( see please, -ure); replacing Middle English plaisir, from Middle French (noun use of infinitive), from Latin placēre “to please”
Explanation
Pleasure is a general term for good feelings. People get pleasure from eating, sleeping, watching TV, or anything else they enjoy. Pleasure is the opposite of pain. Pain feels bad, but pleasure feels good. People talk about sexual pleasure, but that's just one kind. People get pleasure from delicious foods, great movies, beautiful music, and all sorts of other things. Something as small as a comfortable chair and something as big as your candidate being elected President can bring pleasure. If you had a good time hosting your friends for lunch, you can tell them "It was a pleasure."
Vocabulary lists containing pleasure
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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.
See Examples For:
I’ve learned which things are worth making myself, which are better left to professionals and how much pleasure a few slightly theatrical details can bring to an otherwise ordinary meal.
From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026
Kenny is relishing the role, barely able to disguise his pleasure as Miranda Hart confided to him over breakfast that "you're my main faithful".
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
And—there’s no doubt—Tanden takes some pleasure in dispatching them.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
I’m now as paranoid as he is — and what a pleasure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
Ordinarily, Nhamo would have enjoyed the chore, but her pleasure was spoiled by her cousin’s triumph.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Whatever catches on, one of the few pleasures of today’s alarming geopolitics is the coining of new acronyms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
Could there be a place, somewhere in this vast Earth, where Joan and Jean don’t have to sacrifice their codependent sisterly bond to enjoy life’s pleasures?
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
But even then, the film feels energized by its bold mixture of pulp pleasures and weighty musings, operating with a bruising efficiency that Ali’s skilled assassin would no doubt respect.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Now he's enjoying the simple pleasures of being able to come home and put the kettle on or have a shower after he moved in to a new social home two weeks ago.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
“Just go home, fool! Enjoy life’s little pleasures, like breathing and eating solid food.”
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
Mayor Bill de Blasio let out a pleasured tweet of thanks, saluting the State Senate’s co-leaders, the Democrat Klein and that noted progressive, the Republican Dean Skelos.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2014
There the exiled King has pleasured himself with poker, backgammon, golf, visits to the El Patio nightclub, and a social whirl with some of the fastest climbers in Mexico.
From Time Magazine Archive
Schoolma'am Marie Campbell, who put together this book, was pleasured a heap to sit alistening to the olden tales and to write them down so they would keep.
From Time Magazine Archive
The newlyweds pleasured off to Italy, where Paul, who wanted to become a concert singer, studied.
From Time Magazine Archive
Take for our lady’s loyal sake This vagrant tale of mine, Where Cavalier and Roundhead break A reed for Right Divine, A tale it pleasured me to make, And most to make it thine.
From The Lady of Loyalty House A Novel by Justin H. (Justin Huntly) McCarthy
The act set Yellowstone aside as “a pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2022
"Heartbroken at the passing of Bert — a talented, kind young man who I had the pleasuring of working with numerous times on #LetsStayTogether," she tweeted.
From Fox News ● Nov. 9, 2020
They videotaped one year’s pleasuring, he says, and “one pig caught its hoof in a grate and had a little drop of blood on its hoof.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 6, 2011
In that year Congress designated a vast area in what are now the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming as a public "pleasuring ground."
From Time Magazine Archive
Not a day passed but Stephen had got some proposition for pleasuring, and he never tired of hunting up some place to go.
From Only One Love, or Who Was the Heir by Charles Garvice
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
