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Mirth vs Joy - What's the difference?

mirth | joy |

As nouns the difference between mirth and joy

is that mirth is the emotion usually following humour and accompanied by laughter; merriment; jollity; gaiety while joy is a feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good.

As a verb joy is

to feel joy, to rejoice.

As a proper noun Joy is

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

mirth

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The emotion usually following humour and accompanied by laughter; merriment; jollity; gaiety.
  • * 1883 ,
  • And he began to laugh again, and that so heartily, that, though I did not see the joke as he did, I was again obliged to join him in his mirth.
  • *, title=The Mirror and the Lamp
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth , and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}
  • * 1912 , :
  • Their eyes met and they began to laugh. They laughed as children do when they cannot contain themselves, and can not explain the cause of their mirth to grown people, but share it perfectly together.
  • That which causes merriment.
  • * 1922 ,
  • Phantasmal mirth , folded away: muskperfumed.

    Synonyms

    * (emotion) delight, glee, hilarity, jollity

    Antonyms

    * (emotion) sadness, gloom

    Derived terms

    * mirthful * mirthfulness * mirthless * mirthlessly * mirthlessness

    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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