gaiety

/ˈgaɪədi/

/ˈgeɪɪti/

Other forms: gaieties

A festive, happy event, like a big summer backyard party, will be full of gaiety — or merriment and playfulness.

The noun gaiety is the feeling of happiness and delight that might be present at a child's birthday party or a festive square dance. Gaiety can describe a person's generally joyful personality, or the sound of laughter in your house. It comes from the French word gaieté, "joy, merriment, lightheartedness," which evolved from gai, "charming, joyful, happy." The word can be correctly spelled gaiety or gayety, although the first spelling is much more common.

Definitions of gaiety

1. noun

   a joyful feeling
   synonyms: merriment

   types:

   glee, gleefulness, hilarity, mirth, mirthfulness

   great merriment

   jocularity, jocundity

   a feeling of facetious merriment

   jolliness, jollity, joviality

   feeling jolly and jovial and full of good humor

   type of:

   happiness

   emotions experienced when in a state of well-being
2. noun

   a festive merry feeling
   synonyms: playfulness

   type of:

   levity

   feeling an inappropriate lack of seriousness