felicity

¹ American  

[fi-lis-i-tee] / fɪˈlɪs ɪ ti /

noun

plural

felicities

1. the state of being happy, especially in a high degree; bliss.

   marital felicity.

2. an instance of this.

3. a source of happiness.

4. a skillful faculty.

   felicity of expression.

5. an instance or display of this.

   the many felicities of the poem.

6. Archaic. good fortune.

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Felicity ² American  

[fi-lis-i-tee] / fɪˈlɪs ɪ ti /

Also Felicita

noun

1. a female given name, form of Felicia.

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felicity British  

/ fɪˈlɪsɪtɪ /

noun

1. happiness; joy

2. a cause of happiness

3. an appropriate expression or style

4. the quality or display of such expressions or style

5. philosophy appropriateness (of a speech act). The performative I appoint you ambassador can only possess felicity if uttered by one in whom the authority for such appointments is vested

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Related Words

See happiness.

Other Word Forms

• nonfelicity noun

Etymology

Origin of felicity

1350–1400; Middle English felicite (from Anglo-French ) from Latin fēlīcitās, equivalent to fēlīci- (stem of fēlīx ) “happy” + -tās -ty ²

Explanation

Felicity is a state of happiness or the quality of joy. Sitting on the roof with a telescope and iced tea on a clear, starry night is one way to find perfect felicity — a happy place. Felicity comes from the Latin fēlīcitās, meaning "happiness." A synonym for felicity is "blissfulness." People, places, and things can have felicity: "His personality was so warm and full of felicity that we felt at ease the minute we met him." Or you can be in a state of felicity: "A full stomach, a fluffy couch, and the felicity of a Sunday-afternoon nap."

Example Sentences

Rogoyska’s “Surviving Katyń: Stalin’s Polish Massacre and the Search for Truth” won the $10,000 Mark Lynton History Prize for combining “intellectual distinction with felicity of expression.”

From Seattle Times • Mar. 23, 2022

He argued that dirty streets were a welcome sign of prosperity — "a necessary evil, inseparable from the felicity of London."

From Salon • Dec. 26, 2021

As Anne Enright noted years ago, “Hadley, for all the felicity of her prose style, is an immensely subversive writer.”

From The Guardian • Feb. 9, 2019

Preferring verbal felicity to practical wisdom, a character in a Benjamin Disraeli novel quipped, “A majority is always the best repartee.”

From Washington Post • Oct. 3, 2018

He can turn effortlessly from the carnage of war into the felicity of a woman washing her hair in a mountain stream.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy