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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

happy.

Having a feeling arising from a consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, such as comfort, peace, or tranquillity; blissful, contented, joyous.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈhæpi/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈhapɪj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈhape/Scotland/ˈhapɪ/Scotland
  1. Having a feeling arising from a consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, such as comfort, peace, or tranquillity; blissful, contented, joyous.

    Music makes me feel happy.
  2. Experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; favored by fortune or luck; fortunate, lucky.

  3. Experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; favored by fortune or luck; fortunate, lucky. Elect or saved after death, blessed.

    archaic
  4. Content, willing, satisfied (with or to do something); having no objection (to something).

    Are you happy to pay me back by the end of the week?
    Yes, I am happy with the decision.
  5. Bringing or being an instance of favourable fortune; apt, felicitous, fortunate, propitious.

    usually
    happy coincidence
  6. Favoring or inclined to use.

    in-compounds
    slaphappy, trigger-happy
  7. Dexterous, ready, skilful.

    often · rare
  8. Implying “May you have a happy ⁓” or similar; used in phrases to wish someone happiness or good fortune at the time of a festival, celebration, or other event or activity.

    Happy birthday!
    Happy Fourth of July!
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kob-der. Proto-Germanic *hampą Old Norse happbor. Middle English hap Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y Middle English happy English happy From Middle English happy (“fortunate, happy”), perhaps an alteration of Middle English happyn, happen (“fortunate, happy”), possibly related to or from Old Norse heppinn (“fortunate, happy”); and potentially assimilated to be equivalent to hap (“chance, luck, fortune”) + -y. Compare also Icelandic heppinn (“lucky”), Faroese heppin (“fortunate, lucky, happy”), Norwegian Nynorsk heppen (“lucky”), Scots happin (“fortunate, blessed”). See further at hap.

noun/ˈhæpi/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈhapɪj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈhape/Scotland/ˈhapɪ/Scotland
  1. A happy event, thing, person, etc.

    informal · rare
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kob-der. Proto-Germanic *hampą Old Norse happbor. Middle English hap Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y Middle English happy English happy From Middle English happy (“fortunate, happy”), perhaps an alteration of Middle English happyn, happen (“fortunate, happy”), possibly related to or from Old Norse heppinn (“fortunate, happy”); and potentially assimilated to be equivalent to hap (“chance, luck, fortune”) + -y. Compare also Icelandic heppinn (“lucky”), Faroese heppin (“fortunate, lucky, happy”), Norwegian Nynorsk heppen (“lucky”), Scots happin (“fortunate, blessed”). See further at hap.

verb/ˈhæpi/Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈhapɪj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈhape/Scotland/ˈhapɪ/Scotland
  1. Often followed by up: to become happy; to brighten up, to cheer up.

    informal · intransitive
  2. Often followed by up: to make happy; to brighten, to cheer, to enliven.

    informal · transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kob-der. Proto-Germanic *hampą Old Norse happbor. Middle English hap Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y Middle English happy English happy From Middle English happy (“fortunate, happy”), perhaps an alteration of Middle English happyn, happen (“fortunate, happy”), possibly related to or from Old Norse heppinn (“fortunate, happy”); and potentially assimilated to be equivalent to hap (“chance, luck, fortune”) + -y. Compare also Icelandic heppinn (“lucky”), Faroese heppin (“fortunate, lucky, happy”), Norwegian Nynorsk heppen (“lucky”), Scots happin (“fortunate, blessed”). See further at hap.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.