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Happy vs Except - What's the difference?

happy | except |

As an adjective happy

is experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous.

As a verb except is

to exclude; to specify as being an exception.

As a preposition except is

with the exception of; but.

As a conjunction except is

with the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.

happy

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous.
  • * 1769 , Oxford Standard text, , 144, xv,
  • Happy' is that people, that is in such a case: yea, ' happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.
  • * 1777 , (Alexander Pope), An Essay on Man in Four Epistles: Argument of Epistle II'', in ''The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq , Volume III, page 26,
  • The learn'd is happy' nature to explore, / The fool is ' happy that he knows no more ;
    Music makes me feel happy .
  • Favored by luck or fortune; lucky.
  • * 1661 , (Robert Boyle), (The Sceptical Chymist) , 2006, Elibron Classics (imprint), page 227,
  • I may presume that what I have hitherto discoursed will induce you to think, that chymists have been much more happy in finding experiments than the causes of them; or in assigning the principles by which they may best be explained.
  • Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous.
  • * 1761 , (Jonathan Swift), A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation'': Introduction, in ''The works of Dr Jonathan Swift , Volume VII, page 246,
  • For instance, one lady can give an an?wer better than a?k a que?tion : one gentleman is happy at a reply ; another excels in a rejoinder : one can revive a langui?hing conver?ation by a ?udden ?urpri?ing ?entence ;.
  • Content, satisfied (with or to do something); having no objection (to something).
  • Are you happy to pay me back by the end of the week?
    Are you happy with your internet service provider?
  • (As a suffix to a noun) favouring or inclined to use, as in trigger-happy.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=August 21 , author=Jason Heller , title=The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=“Baby, I was a loser / Several years on the dole / An Englishman with a very high voice / Doing rock ’n’ roll,” sings falsetto-happy frontman Justin Hawkins at the start of “Every Inch Of You,” Hot Cakes ’ opener.}}

    Usage notes

    * Said of expedients, efforts, ventures, omens, etc. * (experiencing the effect of favorable fortune) Said of people, hours, thoughts, times, etc.

    Synonyms

    * (favored by luck) lucky, fortunate, prosperous, cheerful, content, delighted, elated, exultant, orgasmic See

    Antonyms

    * sad * unhappy * unpleasant, displeasing, unenjoyable

    Derived terms

    * happify * happily * happiness * happy as a lark * happy as a pig in shit * happy as Larry * happy bunny * happy chappy * happy-clappy * happy families * happy family * happy-go-lucky * happy hour * happy slapping * happy talk * slap-happy * trigger-happy

    except

    English

    Alternative forms

    * excepte (rare or archaic)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To exclude; to specify as being an exception.
  • * 2007 , Glen Bowersock, ‘Provocateur’, London Review of Books 29:4, page 17:
  • But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews.
  • To take exception, to object (to' or ' against ).
  • to except to a witness or his testimony
  • * Shakespeare
  • Except thou wilt except against my love.
  • *, vol.1, New York Review Books 2001, p.312:
  • Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words […].
  • * 1658 , Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial , Penguin 2005, page 23:
  • The Athenians'' might fairly except against the practise of ''Democritus to be buried up in honey; as fearing to embezzle a great commodity of their Countrey
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 96:
  • he was a great lover of music, and perhaps, had he lived in town, might have passed for a connoisseur; for he always excepted against the finest compositions of Mr Handel.

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • With the exception of; but.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.}}

    Synonyms

    * apart from * bar * but * other than * save

    Derived terms

    * except for * except for opinion

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • With the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
  • :
  • *
  • *:"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.."
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother
  • (lb) Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.
  • *1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) IX:
  • *:And they sayde: We have no moo but five loves and two fisshes, except we shulde goo and bye meate for all this people.
  • *1621 , (Robert Burton), (The Anatomy of Melancholy) , New York 2001, p.106:
  • *:Offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of.
  • Statistics

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