blissful adj : completely happy and contented; "blissful young lovers"; "in blissful ignorance"

English

Adjective

1. Extremely happy; full of joy; experiencing, indicating, causing, or characterized by bliss.
   • 1738, Samuel Johnson, "London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal", lines 25-26,

     In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew,

     And call Britannia's glories back to view;

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, ch. 27,

     She ... led a blissful life, unconscious of want, care, or bad weather, while she sat safe and happy in an imaginary world.

   • 1983, James Hijiya, "American Gravestones and Attitudes toward Death: A Brief History," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 127, no. 5., p. 349,

     New England carvers between the 1720s and the 1750s transformed, step by step, the winged skull into the winged face, adding flesh to bare bone and turning the toothy grin of death into the blissful smile of a saved soul.

2. Blessed; glorified.
   • c1387, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Prioress' Tale," in The Canterbury Tales,

     Thus had this widow her little son y-taught

     Our blissful Lady, Christe's mother dear,

     To worship aye

Usage notes

"Blissful" occasionally has the extra connotation that a person is extremely happy because he or she fails to recognize or accept certain adversities or other harsh realities.

Translations

• Finnish: autuas

Synonyms

• ecstatic
• elated
• euphoric
• joyful
• overjoyed
• rapturous

References

• "blissful" in Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © & (P)2007 Microsoft Corporation.
• "blissful" in Compact Oxford English Dictionary, © Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.

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