glee
1 Americanverb (used without object)
noun
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a squint.
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an imperfect eye, especially one with a cast.
noun
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great merriment or delight, often caused by someone else's misfortune
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a type of song originating in 18th-century England, sung by three or more unaccompanied voices Compare madrigal
Related Words
See mirth.
Etymology
Origin of glee1
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English glēo; cognate with Old Norse glȳ; akin to glow
Origin of glee2
1250–1300; Middle English glien, gleen; perhaps < Scandinavian; compare Old Norse gljā to shine
Explanation
If you learned that you'd won a trip for four to Disney World, it would be hard to hide your glee. Glee means extreme happiness or delight. Anything that makes you full of joy, so happy you could laugh out loud, fills you with glee. If your favorite football team wins the Super Bowl, your glee will make you cheer, and a kid let loose with a ten dollar bill in a candy shop might dance around with glee. In the 1700s and 1800s, a glee was a song written for men's a cappella singing groups, which were sometimes called glee clubs.
Vocabulary lists containing glee
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And I felt that as I watched adults gallivant around with childlike glee.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026
That’s a real shame, considering how interesting Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is if you can divorce yourself from the film’s source material, as its writer-director does with palpable glee.
From Salon • Feb. 23, 2026
If England had been told they would play an Australia team without all of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, they would have been rubbing their hands with glee.
From BBC • Dec. 9, 2025
Over a glass of red wine, Behn was occasionally interrupted when one of her television ads blared in the background, which she viewed with a mix of glee and sheer disbelief.
From Slate • Dec. 2, 2025
He rocked to and fro, sniggering with uncontrolled glee.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
