Delightful Meaning
/dəˈlaɪt.fl̩/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjPleasant; pleasing, bringing enjoyment, satisfaction, or pleasure.
Sentence Examples
It's always delightful to see you.
It was a delightful bit of nonsense.
Nothing is more delightful for me than to talk with him.
CEFR Practice Quiz
We had a ____ time at the garden party last weekend.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It's always ____ to see you.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English deliteful, delitfull, equivalent to delight + -ful.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"What? a higher delight to be drawn from the sight / Of fish full of life and of glee? / What a noodle you are! ’tis delightfuller far / To kill them than let them go free!"
— 1853, Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Two Brothers”, in Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, editor, The Lewis Carroll Picture Book […], London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1899, →OCLC, page 22:
"O, Joy! quicker than fire! O, Hope of things! / O, gracious gladness mighty with delight! / O, subtle sweet, delightfuler than might! / Ah, me, no fiercer laughing unction springs / From the fair Hope of things!"
— 1888, Venier Voldo, “Memoria in Eterna”, in Poems from the Pacific: The West’s Reply to England’s Laureate, 2nd edition, San Francisco, Calif.: The Bancroft Company, →OCLC, page 134:
"Hon. Collier Weekly which furnish Japanese Schoolboy to public not often enough, when is his book coming out? […] That Boy is the dearest & sweetest & frankest & wisest & funniest & delightfulest & lovablest creation that has been added to our literature for a long time."
— Benjamin Griffin, Harriet Elinor Smith, editors (2015), “Explanatory Notes”, in Autobiography of Mark Twain (The Mark Twain Papers), volume 3, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 599
"Congratulations on that delightful absurdity about Nimzovitch[.]"
— 1951 July, A. W. Marschner, “Readers' Forum”, in Chess Review:
"An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed 'to save notepaper') and enter into the delightful pastime of 'a chicken from Mr Whiteley's'."
— 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part I, London: Collins, →ISBN:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
We had a ____ time at the garden party last weekend.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It's always ____ to see you.