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US /ɡliː/
Freq #10122

Meanings

  1. 1
  2. 2

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · great joy or delight, often... delightelationglee
2 noun · satisfaction taken in... gloating
Word family
Forms glees
Derived forms glee-beamgleecraftgleefulgleefullygleefulnessgleeishgleekgleelessgleemaidengleemangleesomegleewoman

Appears in

Etymology

From Middle English gle, from Old English glēo, glīġ, glēow, glīw (“glee, pleasure, mirth, play, sport; music; mockery”), from Proto-West Germanic *glīw, from Proto-Germanic *glīwą (“joy, mirth”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰlew- (“to joke, make fun, enjoy”). Cognate with Scots gle, glie, glew (“game, play, sport, mirth, joy, rejoicing, entertainment, melody, music”), Icelandic glý (“joy, glee, gladness”), Ancient Greek χλεύη (khleúē, “joke, jest, scorn”). A poetic word in Middle English, the word was obsolete by 1500, but revived late 18c.

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