Definition: jovial; festive; full of merriment
Synonyms: Mirth implies general lightness of heart and love of gaiety; glee stresses exultation shown in laughter, cries of joy or delight; hilarity suggests loud or irrepressible laughter or high-spirited boisterousness; jollity suggests exuberance or exultant playfulness.
Poetry:
How beautiful the water is! To me ’tis wondrous fair.
No spot can ever lonely be if water sparkle there.
It hath a thousand tongues of mirth, of grandeur, or delight,
And every heart is gladder made
When water greets the sight.
— Elizabeth Oakes Smith (1806–1893) American poet
Quote: Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. — Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English essayist