CHEERFULNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cheerfulness mean? 

• CHEERFULNESS (noun)
  The noun CHEERFULNESS has 2 senses:

1. the quality of being cheerful and dispelling gloom

2. a feeling of spontaneous good spirits

  Familiarity information: CHEERFULNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHEERFULNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being cheerful and dispelling gloom

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

cheer; cheerfulness; sunniness; sunshine

Context example:

flowers added a note of cheerfulness to the drab room

Hypernyms ("cheerfulness" is a kind of...):

attribute (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity)

Attribute:

cheerful (being full of or promoting cheer; having or showing good spirits)

cheerless; depressing; uncheerful (causing sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cheerfulness"):

good-humoredness; good-humouredness; good-naturedness; good-temperedness (a cheerful willingness to be obliging)

Holonyms ("cheerfulness" is a part of...):

disposition; temperament (your usual mood)

Antonym:

uncheerfulness (not conducive to cheer or good spirits)

Derivation:

cheerful (being full of or promoting cheer; having or showing good spirits)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A feeling of spontaneous good spirits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

blitheness; cheerfulness

Context example:

his cheerfulness made everyone feel better

Hypernyms ("cheerfulness" is a kind of...):

happiness (emotions experienced when in a state of well-being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cheerfulness"):

buoyancy; perkiness (cheerfulness that bubbles to the surface)

carefreeness; insouciance; lightheartedness; lightsomeness (the cheerful feeling you have when nothing is troubling you)

Antonym:

cheerlessness (a feeling of dreary or pessimistic sadness)

Derivation:

cheerful (pleasantly (even unrealistically) optimistic)

 Context examples 

Happy, thoughtful times there in the old study which Jo called 'the church of one member', and from which she came with fresh courage, recovered cheerfulness, and a more submissive spirit.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

To youth and natural cheerfulness like Emma's, though under temporary gloom at night, the return of day will hardly fail to bring return of spirits.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Marianne continued to mend every day, and the brilliant cheerfulness of Mrs. Dashwood's looks and spirits proved her to be, as she repeatedly declared herself, one of the happiest women in the world.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The evening passed without any further disturbance, and, in the occasional absence of General Tilney, with much positive cheerfulness.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Fanny felt that there must be a struggle in Edmund's cheerfulness, but it was delightful to see the effort so successfully made.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A little further perseverance in patience and forced cheerfulness on Anne's side produced nearly a cure on Mary's.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Still, now and then, I received a damping check to my cheerfulness; and was, in spite of myself, thrown back on the region of doubts and portents, and dark conjectures.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We spoke, with some approach to cheerfulness, of Mr. Peggotty's growing rich in a new country, and of the wonders he would describe in his letters.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We resumed our places, and Dr. Van Helsing went on with a sort of cheerfulness which showed that the serious work had begun.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Justine assumed an air of cheerfulness, while she with difficulty repressed her bitter tears.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)