glee
Meanings
Plural: glees
Noun
- great merriment
- malicious satisfaction
- Joy; happiness; great delight, especially from one's own good fortune or from another's misfortune.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- An unaccompanied part song for three or more solo voices, not necessarily merry.
Verb
- To sing a glee (unaccompanied part song).
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English gle, from Old English glēo, glīġ, glēow, glīw (“glee, pleasure, mirth, play, sport; music; mockery”), from Proto-West Germanic *glīw, from Proto-Germanic *glīwą (“joy, mirth”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlew- (“to joke, make fun, enjoy”).
Cognate with Scots gle, glie, glew (“game, play, sport, mirth, joy, rejoicing, entertainment, melody, music”), Icelandic glý (“joy, glee, gladness”), Ancient Greek χλεύη (khleúē, “joke, jest, scorn”). A poetic word in Middle English, the word was obsolete by 1500, but revived late 18c.
Synonyms
blitheness, blithesomeness, cheerfulness, cheeriness, contentedness, contentness, delight, delightedness, elatedness, elation, exuberance, exuberantness, felicity, gaiety, gayfulness, gayness, gladness, gladsomeness, glee, gleefulness, gleesomeness, gloat, gloating, happiness, high spirits, hilarity, jolliness, jollity, joviality, jovialness, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, liss, merriment, merriness, mirth, mirthfulness, pleasedness
Scrabble Score: 5
glee is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordglee is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
glee is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary