Pleasure Meaning
/ˈplɛʒə/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA state of being pleased or contented; gratification.
nounA person, thing or action that causes enjoyment.
Sentence Examples
To see you is always a great pleasure.
It is a great pleasure being with you.
His eyes lit up with pleasure.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She listened to the music simply for the ____ it gave her.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She took great ____ in tending her garden and watching the flowers bloom each spring.
Word Origin & History
From Early Modern English pleasur, plesur, alteration (with ending accommodated to -ure) of Middle English plaisir (“pleasure”), from Old French plesir, plaisir (“to please”), infinitive used as a noun, conjugated form of plaisir or plaire, from Latin placeō (“to please, to seem good”), from the Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂-k- (“wide and flat”). Related to Dutch plezier (“pleasure, fun”). More at please.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"But the only statistic that will concern West Brom will be the scoreline, and their manager Roy Hodgson will take considerable pleasure from a victory over the club he managed for just 191 days."
— 2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport:
"Maximize all the pleasure / Even with all this weather / Nothing can make it better / Maximize all the pleasure"
— 2019, Toro y Moi, “Ordinary Pleasure”, in Outer Peace:
"Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure"
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 25:9:
"The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
"In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. […]"
— 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She listened to the music simply for the ____ it gave her.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She took great ____ in tending her garden and watching the flowers bloom each spring.