Happiness

How to spell happiness

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce happiness

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does happiness mean?

1. nounThe state of or feeling of being content, joyful, and satisfied.

Happiness in a sentence

• A steady job and good friends brought her lasting happiness.

• The survey measured the happiness of employees across the company.

Where does happiness come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Happiness traces back to the Old Norse word 'happ', meaning 'luck' or 'good fortune', which entered Middle English as 'hap'. From 'hap' came the adjective 'happy', originally describing someone who was lucky or favoured by chance rather than someone in a cheerful mood. The noun 'happiness' was formed in the late 1400s by adding the native suffix '-ness', which turns an adjective into a state or condition. Over time the meaning drifted from 'good luck' toward the modern sense of inner contentment and joy, though the older sense survives in relatives like 'haphazard', 'mishap', and 'perhaps'. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the final 'y' of 'happy' changes to 'i' before '-ness', and the doubled 'p' must be preserved, giving 'happiness' rather than 'hapyness' or 'happyness'.

How the word is built

• happ- (from 'hap': luck, chance)
• -i- (connective, from -y)
• -ness (noun-forming suffix: state or quality)