Glee Meaning
/ɡliː/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounJoy; happiness; great delight, especially from one's own good fortune or from another's misfortune.
nounMusic; minstrelsy; entertainment.
Sentence Examples
I'm a member of the glee club.
Who's your favorite character on Glee?
Are you going to join the glee club?
CEFR Practice Quiz
The children jumped and laughed with ____ when they saw the ice cream truck.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young children were jumping up and down with ____ when they saw the first snowfall of the winter.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made."
— 1968, “Sympathy for the Devil”, in The Rolling Stones (music), Beggars Banquet:
"Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee."
— 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:
"Sometimes they had glees, when Captain Strong’s chest was of vast service, and he boomed out in a prodigious bass, of which he was not a little proud."
— 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 23, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The children jumped and laughed with ____ when they saw the ice cream truck.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The young children were jumping up and down with ____ when they saw the first snowfall of the winter.