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Delight vs Joy - What's the difference?

delight | joy |

Joy is a synonym of delight.



In intransitive terms the difference between delight and joy

is that delight is to have or take great pleasure while joy is to feel joy, to rejoice.

As nouns the difference between delight and joy

is that delight is joy; pleasure while joy is a feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good.

As verbs the difference between delight and joy

is that delight is to give delight to; to affect with great pleasure; to please highly while joy is to feel joy, to rejoice.

As a proper noun Joy is

{{given name|female|from=English}}.

delight

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Joy; pleasure.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xviii. 2
  • A fool hath no delight in understanding.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The new masters and commanders , passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.}}
  • Something that gives great joy or pleasure.
  • * Milton:
  • Heaven's last, best gift, my ever new delight .
  • * (Greensleeves):
  • Greensleeves was all my joy / Greensleeves was my delight,

    Derived terms

    * undelight * delightful

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To give delight to; to affect with great pleasure; to please highly.
  • * Tennyson
  • Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds.
  • (label) To have or take great pleasure
  • Derived terms

    * delight in

    Anagrams

    * *

    joy

    English

    (wikipedia joy)

    Noun

  • A feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good.
  • a child's joy on Christmas morning
  • * , chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}
  • Anything that causes such a feeling.
  • * Bible, 1 Thess. ii. 20
  • Ye are our glory and joy .
  • * Keats
  • A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
  • (obsolete) The sign or exhibition of joy; gaiety; merriment; festivity.
  • * Spenser
  • Such joy made Una, when her knight she found.
  • * Dryden
  • The roofs with joy resound.

    Antonyms

    * (feeling of happiness) infelicity, joylessness, unhappiness, unjoy

    Derived terms

    * bundle of joy * cocky's joy * enjoy * joyance * joyful * joygasm * joyless * joyous * joy ride * joystick * jump for joy * killjoy * no joy * overjoy * traveller's joy * unjoy

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To feel joy, to rejoice.
  • *:
  • *:for oftymes or this oure lord shewed hym vnto good men and vnto good knyghtes in lykenes of an herte But I suppose from hens forth ye shalle see no more / and thenne they Ioyed moche / and dwelled ther alle that day / And vpon the morowe whan they had herde masse / they departed and commaunded the good man to god
  • *1885 , Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night , Night 18:
  • *:I swore readily enough to this and he joyed with exceeding joy and embraced me round the neck while love for him possessed my whole heart.
  • (archaic) To enjoy.
  • *1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i.2:
  • *:For from the time that Scudamour her bought, / In perilous fight, she neuer ioyed day.
  • *Milton
  • *:Who might have lived and joyed immortal bliss.
  • (obsolete) To give joy to; to congratulate.
  • *Dryden
  • *:Joy us of our conquest.
  • *Prior
  • *:To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe.
  • (obsolete) To gladden; to make joyful; to exhilarate.
  • *Shakespeare
  • *:Neither pleasure's art can joy my spirits.
  • Statistics

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