Word that have the same meaning as happy

We can be happy when we’re pleased with how something has gone or a certain event in our life. We can be sad when something bad has happened that’s made us feel inadequate or down. However, did you know some words mean you can experience both at the same time?

What Word Is Best To Describe The Feeling Of Being Happy And Sad At The Same Time?

Bittersweet is the best word to describe the feeling of being happy and sad at the same time. There are other choices, which we will cover, but bittersweet works perfectly to cover both emotions (“bitter” showing sadness and “sweet” showing happiness).

We’ll cover the words in slightly more detail as we go through the article, but the words you’ll see are:

• Bittersweet
• Tragicomic
• Rueful
• Ambivalent
• Emotional

Bittersweet

The Cambridge Dictionary can help us with the definition of “bittersweet.” It is used to mean something “containing a mixture of sadness and happiness.”

A person can feel bittersweet for several reasons, but it’s the perfect example of a word that shows the mixed emotions one feels when they’re going through a hard time in their life while also feeling happy about something.

Both happy and sad are contradicting emotions, but that doesn’t mean you’re not able to feel both of them simultaneously. In fact, it’s more of a common feeling than you might realize.

The bittersweet feeling you get when you’re happy about something can arise for a number of reasons, for example:

• If you won an event by accidentally cheating or tarnishing the competitor’s chances somehow.
• If you recently lost a loved one but came into some really good news.
• If something positive happened to you and not your friend, but you really wished it happened to you both.

These are just some of the ways we can see bittersweet emotions in our lives. You’ve more than likely come across it once or twice, and it’s a difficult feeling to explain.

Tragicomic

The Cambridge Dictionary gives us a definition of tragicomedy as “a (type of) play or story that is both sad and funny.” This definition is extended to “tragicomic,” which means it relates to this same sensation you get from the play or story.

A situation often seems more tragicomic, rather than it being a direct emotional you feel. However, it’s still possible to experience a tragicomic emotion of some kind.

If you have a tragicomic feeling or sensation, it’s usually because you’re already sad for some reason, but you found something ridiculously funny. The other incident is where something is so sad you can’t help but laugh, and that laughter often helps ease your sadness a little.

It’s not the best synonym for bittersweet, but it’s definitely one of the more closely related words to it that we can use. It’s also a great word to include in your vocabulary should you ever feel the need to say it.

Not many people have heard of tragicomic as a word before, so you could impress a few people.

Rueful

The Cambridge Dictionary refers to “rueful” as “feeling sorry and wishing that something had not happened.” If you look at the example they provide, it shows someone giving a “rueful laugh,” and this shows that “rueful” is used mostly in a dry and humorous way.

Generally, if we’re writing the word “rueful” in text, it comes before words like “smile” or “laugh.” It’s used in a humorous way to show that we wished something didn’t have to happen the way that it did, but there’s nothing we can do now but laugh at the situation.

Sometimes, that same feeling is applicable to normal life. Say you’re at a funeral for a loved one, and you remember something funny that the two of you did together. Sure, you shouldn’t be laughing at a funeral, but now you’re so overcome with rueful emotion you don’t know what else to do.

That’s generally when we would use “rueful” as an emotion. It shows that we’re sorry or apologetic for an outcome, but we often have to laugh at either the outcome or ourselves before it sends us spiraling into despair.

Ambivalent

Here, The Cambridge Dictionary uses a great definition for the word “ambivalent.” It means “having two opposing feelings at the same time, or being uncertain about how you feel.”

While a feeling of ambivalence doesn’t strictly have to apply to happiness and sadness (it could be calmness and anger, for example), it works as a great synonym for bittersweet. In fact, it’s probably the best word on this list besides bittersweet that works as a way to show two contrasting emotions.

On top of that, it’s a great word to include in your vocabulary. Not many people are familiar with a word as powerful as this, and it will show how well you understand your meaning if you get a chance to use it.

A feeling of ambivalence can appear anywhere in life. We typically use it when we’re not able to process our emotions, leading us to a state where we’re not entirely sure which of the two opposing emotions we feel.

It creates this idea of emotional limbo, where we’re both happy and sad. Both of those emotions cancel each other out, almost making us feel empty, or in the case of the Cambridge definition, “uncertain.”

Emotional

The Cambridge Dictionary teaches us that “emotional” means “having and expressing strong feelings.” While this doesn’t strictly imply that two contradicting emotions are felt at the same time, it works well as an alternative nonetheless.

When somebody is emotional, it’s often too difficult for that person to process their emotions and talk to you about what they’re feeling.

Significant, life-changing events can lead someone to become emotional. Say, for example, you win a lot of money in a competition that will change your life forever. Most people actually cry when they hear this news, which is a common response to sadness.

It’s this exact situation that leads the word emotional to being a really good synonym for bittersweet. When you’re so overcome with emotion, you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. If you hear bad news, you might laugh out loud; if you hear great news, you might cry happy tears. Either way, you’re so emotional that you don’t know what your body or brain is telling you!

All of the above words are an excellent way of saying you feel both happy and sad at the same time. It’s not a feeling you’ll come by often, but when you do, it’s helpful to have these words in your arsenal ready to use.

It also helps to expand your ability to write really impressive stories. If you’re able to have a strong handle on emotions in a novel, then people will be amazed at your writing skills and descriptive abilities.

Examples Of When You Can Feel Happy And Sad At The Same Time

While it’s great to know all of the words you can use to explain this feeling, that’s not enough. It’ll help if you also know when situations might occur that might lead you to feel bittersweet or ambivalent.

Graduating

Graduating is a huge event in any student’s life. It’s such a happy moment for most people because it means they’re turning over to the next page of their life and exploring new options.

However, graduation is often sad because it means saying goodbye to old friends and knowing that you most likely won’t see them again.

Changing Jobs

Just like graduation, changing a job in life is often seen as a huge milestone. If you’ve made the decision to further your career, then that will have a massive impact on your life and change you for the better. Usually, it’s a happy day.

However, it can be difficult to let go of the past. It can also be hard to say goodbye to colleagues, especially those that you consider friends. That’s what leads to these bittersweet moments in life.

Having A Baby

Having a baby is by far one of the most exciting and happy moments in any parent’s life. It’s the time to take on new responsibilities and start up a family with the people that you love.

However, having a baby also leads new parents to ask sad questions like whether they’re good enough to be a good parent or whether they’re right for the baby. This emotional back and forth leads to some serious bittersweet sensations.

Beating A Friend (Sporting Event)

Beating a friend in a competition is a great way to show that you’ve earned your spot in the podium position. However, we often want to encourage our friends to be the best versions of themselves and need to push each other to get there.

While beating a friend can be exciting and lead to happiness; you may also take away their own pride, which is an unhappy sensation at the same time. There’s a very fine balance between these things.

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10 Better Ways To Say “Happy” In English

10 Words For Being Sad And Beautiful At The Same Time

If you were asked to describe what happiness means to you without actually using the word «happiness», what would you answer? We asked this question to over a thousand people and recorded the answers. As a result, we found a number of striking contrasts between different demographic groups.

Our results include:

• «Love» is most associated with the word «Happiness», according to our 1,155 respondents.
• Happy people are 55% more likely to associate the words «Happiness» and «Family» with each other than unhappy people.
• Men are 250% more likely to associate sex with happiness than women are.
• Married people are 19% more likely to associate «Love» with «Happiness» than unmarried people.
• >30-year-old people are 24% less likely to associate the words «Sex» and «Happiness» with each other.
• By having kids, we’re 25% less likely to associate «Freedom and independence» with «Happiness».

This study provides clear differences in how people define happiness, which is something that hasn’t been done before.

This article covers the data that was collected and explores the many word associations between different demographic groups. What words do people associate most with happiness?

It’s time to share what we discovered.

What does happiness mean? This is one of those questions that always get a different answer, no matter how many people you ask. We surveyed over a thousand people and tried to find as many answers as possible.

We wanted to know how people would describe happiness without being able to actually use the word «Happiness».

What words do you associate most with happiness?

We asked 1,155 respondents the following question:

Of the following words, which 5 words do you associate most with «happiness»?

Each respondent had to pick 5 words that they felt most associated with the word happiness:

• Laughter/Cheer
• Joy
• Pleasure
• Satisfaction
• Contentment
• Safety/Security
• Purpose in life
• Love
• Relationships
• Family
• Wealth
• Freedom/Independence
• Health/Well-being
• Sex
• Enlightenment
• Other

The words appeared in random order. In total, this resulted in 5.775 answers.

This chart shows how often each word was associated with the word happiness.

Love, family, joy, health & well-being and satisfaction are most often associated with happiness.

Our study shows that the word «Love» is most associated with the word «Happiness».

But how does this data correlate to different demographic characteristics? To find out, we asked each respondent a number of additional questions, ranging from overall happiness rating to marital status. How did these demographics affect order of most associated words to happiness?

Happy people versus unhappy people

We asked the respondents the following question about their happiness:

If you look back at the last year of your life, how would you rate your happiness on a scale from 1 to 10?

We then grouped all respondents based on their answers.

The average happiness rating from all respondents was 7.19.

We then divided the respondents in 3 roughly equally-sized groups:

• Relatively unhappy people (happiness 6 or lower): n=364
• People with average happiness (happiness of 7 or 8): n=441
• Relatively happy people (happiness higher than 8): n=350

By comparing the 350 happiest people to the 364 unhappiest people in our survey, we found a number of interesting and significant differences.

Happy people associate «Sex» with «Happiness» more often

Out of the 173 respondents that placed sex in their top 5 words associated with happiness, 61 were part of the relatively happy group. In comparison, only 40 of the people that are relatively unhappy placed sex in their top 5 words.

When looking at the data compared to the number of respondents of each group, the following observation can be made:

• Of all happy respondents, 17.4% used the word “Sex” as a word to associate with “Happiness”.
• Of all unhappy respondents, 11.0% used the word “Sex” as a word to associate with “Happiness”.

Happy people are 59% more likely to associate «Sex» with «Happiness» than unhappy people.

This is visualized in the chart below, where happy respondents showed a likelihood 59% times bigger than those that are unhappy.

It has been proven by many other studies that sex is correlated to happiness.

• This study reports that sex increases our positive moods.
• Here’s one that shows that couples who have weekly sex are the happiest.
• Another study that shows both a higher quantity and higher quality of sex is correlated to increased well-being.
• And many more.

It’s interesting to see that this correlation aligns with our word association study.

Happy people more likely to associate «Family» with «Happiness»

We found another interesting difference between the unhappy and happy group of respondents.

Of all happy respondents, 61.7% used the word “Family” as a word to associate with “Happiness”. On the other hand, only 39.8% of the unhappy respondents made the association between the words “Family” and “Happiness”.

Happy people are 55% more likely to associate the words «Happiness» and «Family» with each other.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

This is another interesting result. A good family-life can provide a lot of happiness in our lives, in addition to support, laughter, safety and love. It’s clear that happier people are more likely to acknowledge the importance of family.

While this doesn’t provide any information as to how family and happiness are related, there are many other studies that have proven how happiness and family are correlated.

Happy people associate «Wealth» with «Happiness» more frequently

An often studied field in mental health is the influence that money has on happiness. We found that happiness was associated with wealth more by the group of happy people.

32.0% of the happy respondents used the word “Wealth” as a word to associate with “Happiness”. On the other hand, only 18.1% of the unhappy respondents made the association between the words “Wealth” and “Happiness”.

Happy people are 76% more likely to associate «Wealth» with «Happiness».

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

A lot of studies have proven that money does indeed «buy happiness», including this recent one. This is in line with our findings, as people that are happy are more likely to experience the positive benefits of being wealthy.

Men versus women

The difference between men and women has been studied for centuries, resulting in objective differences in the way men and women experience emotions, hormonal changes and expressivity.

Out of our 1,155 respondents, 665 were male, and 482 were female.

Top 5 most associated words with happiness same for men and women

We were surprised to see little differences between men and women when it comes to associating different words to «Happiness».

For both men and women, the 5 most associated words with «Happiness» remain the same.

However, one outlier was the word «Sex».

Happiness and sex and the difference between men and women

In total, the word sex was associated with the word happiness 173 times. This means that 173 out of our 1,155 respondents (15%) placed sex in their top 5 words that are most associated with the word happiness.

Out of the 173 respondents that placed sex in their top 5 words associated with happiness, 134 were male. In comparison, only 38 females placed sex in their top 5 words.

Men are 250% more likely to associate sex with happiness than women are, according to our study.

This is visualized in the chart below.

A study suggested by Psychology Today noted women are less likely to orgasm during sex, which could explain the rift between both genders. That survey queried 24,000 college-aged women and revealed that 40% of them climax during sex while 80% of their male counterparts did. This could explain the large difference between men and women when it comes to associating happiness with sex.

The impact of aging

We asked our respondents their approximate age.

Since the majority of our respondents was aged between 16-30 years old, we divided the respondents into two groups:

• People of 30 years or younger: n=693
• People older than 30 years: n=457

By comparing these groups with eacher other, we were able to make some interesting observations again.

People above 30 associate «Sex» less with «Happiness»

Of the respondents that were younger than 30 years, 16.6% associated the words “Sex” and “Happiness” with each other. On the other hand, only 12.7% of the respondents above 30 years old made the same word association.

>30-year-old people are 24% less likely to associate the words «Sex» and «Happiness» with each other.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

This difference is likely explained by the human libido, and how it changes as we age.

People above 30 associate «Health» more with «Happiness»

We are all slowly dying. That is to say that our bodies are slowly but constantly deteriorating as we grow older. Therefore, we were expecting age to have some influence on the association between the words «Health» and «Happiness».

Of the respondents that were older than 30 years, 48.4% associated the words “Health/Well-being” and “Happiness” with each other. On the other hand, only 35.2% of the respondents younger than 30 years old made the same word association.

>30-year-old people are 37% more likely to associate the words «Health» and «Happiness» with each other.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

This suggests that the impact of our health on our happiness grows as we get older. Typically, a person experiences more health issues at an older age. Therefore, it’s unsurprising to see a stronger association between health and happiness in the responses of older people.

Does marital status impact our definition of happiness?

Whenever a couple announces a recent proposal, there’s often someone that jokingly gives the couple condolences instead of the usual congratulations. This implies that a married life consists of restrictions and stress as opposed to sex, love and happiness.

We asked our respondents whether or not they were married, in order to find out how their definition of happiness changed after their marriage.

604 respondents were married at the time of the survey, whereas 544 were unmarried. Unsurprisingly, there were some striking differences between these two groups.

The positive effects of marriage on our happiness

As said before, marriage is often jokingly refered to as a surefire way to end your sexlife. While our study does not indicate whether or not married couples are less likely to have sex, it does show an interesting change.

Married respondents are more likely to associate «Love» and «Sex» with the word «Happiness».

Of the 604 married respondents, 65.4% associated the words “Love” and “Happiness” with each other. Only 55.1% of the unmarried respondents made the same word association.

Married people are 19% more likely to associate «Love» with «Happiness» than unmarried people.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

The same difference was found between married and unmarried people when it comes to associating sex with happiness.

Of the 604 married respondents, 16.4% associated the words “Sex” and “Happiness” with each other. Only 13.6% of the unmarried respondents made the same word association.

Married people are 20% more likely to associate «Sex» with «Happiness» than unmarried people.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

This implies that the importance of sex and love for happiness only increases as a person gets married. An interesting survey was performed by Cosmopolitan that sheds a little light on how marriage affects the sex lives of couples. One of the findings was that married couples tended to have sex less frequently.

Perhaps it’s about quality versus quantity. Our study indicates that married couple associate sex with happiness more often than unmarried couples. So even though married couples may spice things up less often, it’s only getting more important for their happiness.

Does marriage lead to less freedom?

What about the negative differences? What words did married people associate less with happiness?

The answer: «Freedom and independence» and «Purpose in life».

Of the 604 married respondents, only 29.0% associated the words «Freedom and independence» and “Happiness” with each other. On the other hand, 37.3% of the unmarried respondents made the same word association.

Married people are 22% less likely to associate «Freedom and independence» with «Happiness» than unmarried people.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

What about «Purpose in life»?

Of the 604 married respondents, only 27.6% associated the words «Purpose in life» and “Happiness” with each other. On the other hand, 41.0% of the unmarried respondents made the same word association.

Married people are 33% less likely to associate «Purpose in life» with «Happiness» than unmarried people.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

This suggests that by getting married, a person is more likely to share his or her freedom. As a result, your lifepath is intertwined with that of your partner, which may reduce the importance of your own purpose in life.

What about having kids?

Having kids changes your life. It’s often said that having kids is like being on a rollercoaster ride, where highs are often followed by lows. We were excited to see how this would influence how people would describe happiness without being able to actually use the word «Happiness».

We divided the respondents into 2 groups:

• Parents: n=593
• Non-parents: n=563

Interestingly, we found a clear difference in happiness ratings between parents and non-parents.

Our survey found that parents were 8% happier on average. The average happiness rating of a parent was 7.46, as opposed to an average rating of 6.90 for a non-parent.

How does being a parent impact the definition of happiness for the average respondent?

Happiness equals family for those who have kids

By becoming a parent, you create a family for yourself. This naturally results in a higher importance of family for your happiness. This is in line with the data from our survey.

Out of the 593 parents in our survey, 327 people (55.1%) associated the words «Family» and «Happiness» with each other. For the non-parents, this ratio dropped to 41.2%.

People with kids are 38% more likely to associate «Family» with «Happiness» than people without kids.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

Do kids take away your freedom to do what you want?

Parents have the important responsibility of raising a kid. We expected this would result in some interesting changes in our word association data.

We found that having kids and getting married have a similar impact on our definition of happiness.

By having kids, our definition of happiness is less likely to include the words «Freedom and independence» and «Purpose in life».

Of the 593 parents, only 27.8% associated the words «Freedom and independence» and “Happiness” with each other. On the other hand, 37.3% of the non-parents made the same word association.

By having kids, we’re 25% less likely to associate «Freedom and independence» with «Happiness».

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

What about «Purpose in life»?

Out of the 593 parents in our survey, 157 people (26.5%) associated the words «Purpose in life» and «Happiness» with each other. For the non-parents, this ratio increased to 40.7%.

Parents are 35% less likely to associate «Purpose in life» with «Happiness» than non-parents.

This difference is visualized in the chart below.

Most people think of their children as making their lives more fulfilling, but what do existing studies say? This study looked at 1.8 million Americans and found no real significant difference in happiness between parents and non-parents. The study states that parents experience more daily joy and more daily stress than nonparents. In other words, the happiness of parents may be similar to that of non-parents, but it’s simply less stable.

Methodology

If you’re looking for more information on how the study was performed, this article provides an overall introduction to this study. It also includes links to other result articles that are relevant to this study.

Want to know more details? Like who was surveyed, what are the demographics of the respondents, and how the study was performed? Here is a link to a document that explains it all (opens in a new window):

Closing words

Men find sex to be more important for their happiness when compared to women. This is the result of a word-association study amongst 1,147 male and female respondents.

What did you think of these results? Let us know in the comments below!