elation

[ ih-ley-shuhn ]

noun

1. a feeling or state of great joy or pride; exultant gladness; high spirits.

elation

/ ɪˈleɪʃən /

noun

1. joyfulness or exaltation of spirit, as from success, pleasure, or relief; high spirits

Other Words From

• self-e·lation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of elation¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English elacioun, from Anglo-French, from Latin ēlātiōn-, stem of ēlātiō “ceremonial carrying out, elevation, ecstasy”; equivalent to elate + -ion

Example Sentences

Newspaper articles in the digital archive of the Influenza Encyclopedia, produced by the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, reported elation about the reopening of theaters.

From Time

I’m not talking about the elation of watching a child hook and fight their first fish only for the moment to end in tears after the fish gets away.

From Popular-Science

As I reread them, I remembered the elation, the fear, the disbelief, the hope that had accompanied each letter.

From MIT Technology Review

Back then, his walk was interrupted by “some strange feeling of elation,” as he told the Associated Press yesterday, about the moment he had his first glimmers of insight into the equations that would eventually make him famous.

From Time

My discomfort gave way to elation as I was briefly transported back to those vanished years of racing on forest trails in early September.

From Outside Online

Elation turned to puzzlement as six infected nuns who received infusions all died.

From The Daily Beast

But that sense of elation would last only a few short hours.

From The Daily Beast

The elation is absurd, and therefore all the more endearing.

From The Daily Beast

It is like a habit-forming drug that, in victory, saps your elation and, in defeat, deepens your despair.

From The Daily Beast

Receiving a coffee-related gift triggers a Pavlovian response – elation, anticipation, a faux caffeine rush.

From The Daily Beast

As he followed him on uptown, down his side-street, Lamb had a curious sense of elation.

From Project Gutenberg

Perhaps, as men get older, the effervescent elation of youth leaves them; but they are none the less happy.

From Project Gutenberg

There was no elation, but on the contrary he seemed weighed down with a sense of the responsibility resting on him.

From Project Gutenberg

She obeyed and he left them, the feeling of victory and elation coming to him in full then.

From Project Gutenberg

But there was no feeling of victory, none of the elation he had thought he would have.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bliss
• ecstasy
• enthusiasm
• euphoria
• excitement
• exhilaration
• glee
• joy
• jubilation
• rapture