pleasure

pleasure, delight, joy, delectation, enjoyment, fruition denote the agreeable emotion which accompanies the possession, acquisition, or expectation of something good or greatly desired.

Pleasure so strongly implies a feeling of satisfaction or gratification that it sometimes carries no implication of visible happiness or actual gladness

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faintly unpleasant pleasures being atoned for by the dull unalleviated pain of guilt— Styron

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he owned over forty pairs of boots, and he had the same pleasure in handling them that jewels give— Bemelmans

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Often, however, the term suggests an excitement or exaltation of the senses or of the mind that implies positive happiness or gladness

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when these wild ecstasies shall be matured into a sober pleasure— Wordsworth

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a great work of art always gives pleasure

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she didn't want to ride on the roller coaster . . . her ideas of pleasure were more sophisticated— Cheever

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Delight carries a stronger implication of liveliness, intensity, or obviousness in the satisfaction or gratification induced than pleasure and often suggests a less stable or enduring emotion

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what pleasure the possession of my money could have afforded him I am unable to say; but ... as it did give him evident delight I was not sorry that I had parted with it so readily— Kipling

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the errors he made in pitch and in language would be so amusing that the geishas would giggle with delight— Mailer

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next to their wondrous delight in each other came their delighted wonder at earth itself— Theodore Sturgeon

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Joy is often used in place of pleasure and still more often in place of delight. It is, however, especially appropriate when a deep-rooted, rapturous emotion is implied or when the happiness is so great as to be almost painful in its intensity

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and all its aching joys are now no more, and all its dizzy raptures— Wordsworth

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it expressed her happiness, relieved the pressure of her joy at being alive— Rose Macaulay

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glad to be free, proud too ... of stepping this famous pavement, joy of a kind, cheap, tinselly, if you like, but all the same rapture, flushed their faces— Woolfy

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Delectation and enjoyment differ in the main from the other words of this group in denoting the state of mind or the sensuous or emotional reactions of one who takes pleasure, delight, or joy in something.

But delectation often carries a strong connotation of amusement, diversion, or entertainment that gives occasion for delight

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her oddities afforded him the utmost delectation

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a superb eclipse of the sun, providentially arranged for the delectation of the Eastern seaboard cities— F. L. Allen

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revived ancient, joyful customs for the delectation of islanders and visitors— Gruening

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Enjoyment, on the other hand, usually implies an attitude or a circumstance or a favorable response to a stimulus that tends to make one gratified or happy

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he gave himself up to the vigorous enjoyment of his pipe for a silent minute or two— Conrad

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that ruling, however, has not entirely dimmed lawmakers' enjoyment of a ripping good time— Armbrister

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just as backbiting and gossip could be a source of enjoyment, so could friendliness and the exchange of... compliments— Farrell

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Fruition has become increasingly rare in its earlier sense of pleasure in possession or of enjoyment in attainment

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the sweet fruition of an earthly crown— Marlowe

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in love we must deserve nothing, or the fine bloom of fruition is gone— Meredith

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In extended use realization or fulfillment is stressed, though there is still some suggestion of accompanying pleasure

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how mature one has to be before learning . . . that growth is more desirable than fruition— Lucas

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Analogous words: *happiness, felicity, bliss: amusement, diversion, recreation, entertainment (see under AMUSE)

Antonyms: displeasure: anger: vexation