contentment
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word contentment. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word contentment, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say contentment in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word contentment you have here. The definition of the word contentment will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofcontentment, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle French contentement. By surface analysis, content + -ment.
Pronunciation
Noun
contentment (usually uncountable, plural contentments)
- The state or degree of being contented or satisfied.
- 1620, Giovanni Bocaccio, translated by John Florio, The Decameron, Containing an Hundred Pleaſant Nouels: Wittily Diſcourſed, Betweene Seuen Honourable Ladies, and Three Noble Gentlemen, Isaac Iaggard, Nouell 8, The Eighth Day:
- […] purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout ſuſpition, no doubt to their equall ioy and contentment.
- 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
- Then they got out their boat from the boat-house, sculled down the river home, and at a very late hour sat down to supper in their own cosy riverside parlour, to the Rat's great joy and contentment.
- happiness in one's situation; satisfaction
- The neurophysiological experience of satisfaction and being at ease in one's situation, body, and/or mind.
Antonyms
Translations
state or degree of being contented
|
Further reading
- “contentment”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “contentment”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.