different between blissful vs blissfully

English

Alternative forms

• blissfull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English blisful, bislvol, equivalent to bliss +? -ful.

Adjective

blissful (comparative more blissful, superlative most blissful)

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;

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

Synonyms

• ecstatic
• elated
• euphoric
• joyful
• orgasmic
• overjoyed
• rapturous
• on cloud nine
• See also Thesaurus:blissful

Derived terms

• blissfully
• blissfulness

Translations

References

• blissful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “blissful”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)

Anagrams

• fullsibs

English

Etymology

From Middle English blisfully, blisfulliche, blisvolliche, equivalent to blissful +? -ly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?bl?sf?li/, /?bl?sfli/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?bl?sf?li/, /?bl?sfli/

Adverb

blissfully (comparative more blissfully, superlative most blissfully)

1. In a blissful, happy or joyful manner.
   • 1834 Heman Humphrey - Miscellaneous Discourses and Reviews

     What changes will be wrought in the character and condition of mankind, as the millennium advances and rolls blissfully away.

   • 2000 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee - Love Is a Fire: A Sufi's Mystical Journey Home

     I walked the blissfully painful path of human love with intoxication and tears, always knowing that love's essence was elsewhere, hidden and yet addictively present.

Translations