1
as in joy
a feeling or state of well-being and contentment
felt nothing but gladness at seeing her best friend beat her out for the award
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in contentment
the feeling experienced when one's wishes are met
the children's gladness was evident as they opened their Christmas presents
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of gladness
Over time in Middle English, myrth(e) narrowed to mean joy, amusement, or gladness, often expressed in laughter and festivity.
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Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 24 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gladness
Noun
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Sometimes, the core emotion becomes blocked because a parent’s joy was shut down during their own childhood.—
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There’s something so special about those simple joys — putting on a big cozy jacket, lighting the fireplace, and just settling in together as a family.—
Noun
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Feel that lovely dog weight, dog density, as your dog settles and downshifts, grows heavy with unconsciousness, and makes the profound noises, the groans of contentment and secret multi-voweled suspirations, of a dog entering its sleep world.—
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Was this what some people called analytic contentment?—
Noun
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Nationally, the study found an ideal salary for happiness is between $105,000-95,000.—
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In turn, this can boost morale, retention, job satisfaction and happiness.—
Noun
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Throughout the entire performance, the band explored visual enjoyment as well, using open-reel tape decks, CRT display drums, and electric fan harps, delivering a large-scale show that shook the entire venue, relentlessly building the crowd’s excitement.—
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There’s his loyalty, sure, but also this other flicker; some enjoyment, some sense of being alive.—
Noun
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In the past five or so years, airlines have seen a surge in passengers flying for pleasure who were willing to buy their way into premium economy or business class cabins on their own dime for a little extra comfort during their travels.—
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The tense drama follows a successful scientist who develops a revolutionary recreational drug that works only on women, awakening a powerful sense of ecstasy and pleasure even when nothing in their circumstances has changed.—
Noun
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In particular, there is satisfaction at the £150 billion ($203 billion) worth of investment decisions announced, even though some were already known about.—
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Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport ranked sixth of 18 medium-sized North American airports in overall passenger satisfaction, according to a study of more than 30,000 travelers by the consumer analytics company.—
Noun
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The podcasting duo immediately lost it and began screaming in delight.—
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Jimmy Kimmel Live returned last night after a week-long suspension, much to the delight of the general public.—
Noun
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If portions of the page appear blank and an ad blocker is enabled, please disable the ad blocker and refresh the page to ensure full access to the content.—
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The content is part of an interconnected ecosystem that includes toys, books, merchandise and live events.—
Cite this Entry
“Gladness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gladness. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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