-pēnə̇s, -pə̇n- noun
( -es )
Etymology: happy + -ness
1. archaic : good fortune : good luck : prosperity
all happiness bechance to thee — Shakespeare
2.
a.
(1) : a state of well-being characterized by relative permanence, by dominantly agreeable emotion ranging in value from mere contentment to deep and intense joy in living, and by a natural desire for its continuation
(2) : a pleasurable or enjoyable experience
I had the happiness of seeing you — W.S.Gilbert
b. Aristotelianism : eudaemonia
3. : aptness , felicity
his examples lack happiness
a striking happiness of expression
Synonyms:
felicity , beatitude , blessedness , bliss : happiness is the general term denoting enjoyment of or pleasurable satisfaction in well-being, security, or fulfillment of wishes
pleasures may come about through chance contact and stimulation; such pleasures are not to be despised in a world full of pain. But happiness and delight are a different sort of thing. They come to be through a fulfillment that reaches to the depths of our being — one that is an adjustment of our whole being with the conditions of existence — John Dewey
felicity , a more bookish or elevated word, may denote a higher, more lasting, or more perfect happiness
all the felicity which a marriage of true affection could bestow — Jane Austen
felicity or continued happiness consists not in having prospered, but in the process of prospering — Frank Thilly
beatitude refers in this sense to the highest happiness, the felicity of the blessed
the years of loving sacrifice in scraping that boxful without letting Patty go short were amply crowned for John by this one moment. He sat down again the in corner wrapped in beatitude — Mary Webb
a sense of deep beatitude — a strange sweet foretaste of Nirvana — Max Beerbohm
blessedness suggests the deep joy of pure affection or of acceptance by a god
the blessedness of the saints
bliss may apply to a complete and assured felicity
all my life's bliss from thy dear life was given — Emily Brontë
now safely lodged in perfect bliss; and with spirits elated to rapture — Jane Austen