What's the difference between happy and joy?

Happy


Definition:

  • (superl.) Favored by hap, luck, or fortune; lucky; fortunate; successful; prosperous; satisfying desire; as, a happy expedient; a happy effort; a happy venture; a happy omen.
  • (superl.) Experiencing the effect of favorable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous; as, happy hours, happy thoughts.
  • (superl.) Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This is not an argument for the status quo: teaching must be given greater priority within HE, but the flipside has to be an understanding on the part of students, ministers, officials, the public and the media that academics (just like politicians) cannot make everyone happy all of the time.
  • (2) Infants were habituated to models posing either prototypically positive displays (e.g., happy expressions) or positive expression blends (e.g., mock surprise).
  • (3) His greatest legacy, besides his three children, is the joy and happiness he offered to others, particularly to those fighting personal battles.
  • (4) United and West Ham are on similar runs and can feel pretty happy about themselves but are not as confident away from home as they are at home and that will have to change if they are to make ground on the top teams.
  • (5) Not even housebuilders are entirely happy, although recent government policies such as Help to Buy and the encouragement of easy credit have helped their share prices rise.
  • (6) I’m so happy to be joining Arsenal, a club which has a great manager, a fantastic squad of players, huge support around the world and a great stadium in London,” said Sánchez.
  • (7) As for gay men, there is absolutely nothing that suggests they are any less war-happy than heterosexuals.
  • (8) While the Spielberg of popular myth is Mr Nice Guy, Lean was known as an obsessive, cantankerous tyrant who didn't much like actors and was only truly happy locked away in the editing suite.
  • (9) That latter issue is quite controversial in Germany, where the Bundesbank is not happy about surrendering control to the ECB .
  • (10) The first problem facing Calderdale is sheep-rustling Happy Valley – filmed around Hebden Bridge, with its beautiful stone houses straight off the pages of the Guardian’s Lets Move To – may be filled with rolling hills and verdant pastures, but the reality of rural issues are harsh.
  • (11) Outwardly, his life was successful, happy, on course.
  • (12) Pointing out that “the army has its own fortune teller”, he sounds less than happy at the state of affairs: “The country is run by superstition.” Weerasethakul is in a relatively fortunate position, in that his arcane films are not exactly populist and don’t depend on the mainstream Thai film industry for funding, but he has become cast as a significant voice of dissent in a difficult time .
  • (13) John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said the landowners his group represents "are obviously not happy" that the beetles are being removed.
  • (14) I was just happy he got his licence back so I could clean him out."
  • (15) He is an academy product and truthfully we are, and me above all, happy to have him with us.
  • (16) Thirty-two nursing students were shown silent films in which 10 normal and 10 schizophrenic women described a happy, sad, and an angry personal experience.
  • (17) Indeed, the distribution of couples according to a multifactorial risk index does in fact establish a connection between the couple's happiness and the level of risk during sexual relations within and outside the couple.
  • (18) But some wise old heads sniff into their handkerchiefs because they have sat through too many costly "happy ever after" ceremonies that ended in acrimony.
  • (19) I can calmly say that his future will still be at Juventus, where he feels very happy,” he parped.
  • (20) In a series of analyses guided by intuitive hypotheses, the Smith and Ellsworth theoretical approach, and a relatively unconstrained, open-ended exploration of the data, the situations were found to vary with respect to the emotions of pride, jealousy or envy, pride in the other, boredom, and happiness.

Joy


Definition:

  • (n.) The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; pleasurable feelings or emotions caused by success, good fortune, and the like, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exhilaration of spirits; delight.
  • (n.) That which causes joy or happiness.
  • (n.) The sign or exhibition of joy; gayety; mirth; merriment; festivity.
  • (n.) To rejoice; to be glad; to delight; to exult.
  • (v. t.) To give joy to; to congratulate.
  • (v. t.) To gladden; to make joyful; to exhilarate.
  • (v. t.) To enjoy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This frees the student to experience the excitement and challenge of learning and the joy of helping people.
  • (2) It came in a mix of joy and sorrow and brilliance under pressure, with one of the most remarkable things you will ever see on a basketball court in the biggest moment.
  • (3) His greatest legacy, besides his three children, is the joy and happiness he offered to others, particularly to those fighting personal battles.
  • (4) An untiring advocate of the joys and merits of his adopted home county, Bradbury figured Norfolk as a place of writing parsons, farmer-writers and sensitive poets: John Skelton, Rider Haggard, John Middleton Murry, William Cowper, George MacBeth, George Szirtes.
  • (5) He'll watch Game of Thrones , from now on, as a cheerfully clueless fan, "with total surprise and joy", and meanwhile get on with other work.
  • (6) José Mourinho ended this breathless contest on his knees with a sliding, turf-surfing celebration that was fuelled by relief as much as joy.
  • (7) But in the event, two US writers have made the final round of this year's award: Joshua Ferris and Karen Joy Fowler .
  • (8) It's no surprise that one of the last things Ian Curtis of Joy Division did before hanging himself was to watch Herzog's Stroszeck (1977).
  • (9) But all that has changed since I discovered the sheer joy of hunting down items with “reduced” stickers at my local Waitrose.
  • (10) "She's very agile as a performer, and is able to deliver again and again so it's a very joyful watch."
  • (11) Many of my friends have been crying with joy this week.
  • (12) Waitrose evokes strong opinions: from sniffy derision about the supermarket's perceived airs and graces to expressions of joy from middle-class incomers when their gentrified area is blessed with a branch.
  • (13) He didn't go to university, but says he discovered the joy of learning for learning's sake when he was tutored on the Harry Potter sets.
  • (14) But their joy didn't last long; a week later, 11 rhino were found on a single day at two private ranches northwest of Johannesburg.
  • (15) To everyone's joy, both stories turned out to be true.
  • (16) The experiences that most often led to high levels of joy were those referrable to positive emotional events.
  • (17) However, nerves among the Stoke fans subsequently turned to joy and relief as a substitute, Mame Biram Diouf, headed in with seven minutes to go and confirmed victory.
  • (18) When Gould almost dies one night, and the next morning is instead given three or four days to live, she experiences a strange joy at the extra time granted, more precious hours to talk with him about their twin passions, Queens Park Rangers and the Labour party, more time to help him get his book finished.
  • (19) Vic Goddard, principal of Passmores academy in neighbouring Essex, the school featured in the TV series Educating Essex, who recently published a book about the joys of headship, The Best Job In The World, says the document spells out what is going on across the country.
  • (20) Joshua Ferris's novel about dentistry, virtual identity and the search for meaning is bitingly funny; Karen Joy Fowler draws on studies of chimpanzee behaviour to consider what it is that makes us human.