What's the difference between jovial and joyful?

Jovial


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to the god, or the planet, Jupiter.
  • (a.) Sunny; serene.
  • (a.) Gay; merry; joyous; jolly; mirth-inspiring; hilarious; characterized by mirth or jollity; as, a jovial youth; a jovial company; a jovial poem.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) That cameo seemed horribly emblematic of a thoroughly underwhelming opening half which ended unadorned by a single shot on target, but almost imperceptibly something was shifting, and Klopp’s demeanour slowly shifted from jovially laid-back to scratchy and irritable.
  • (2) Across town in Le Central restaurant, nicknamed Hollande's canteen, the atmosphere is jovial.
  • (3) A former Socialist party leader, he is a jovial, wise-cracking believer in consensus politics, who aides say never loses his rag and who so hates fights that he was once nicknamed "the marshmallow" within his own party, or "Flanby", after a wobbly caramel pudding.
  • (4) The reports of Abbott recoiling from Davis do not speak of a reciprocal and jovial situation.
  • (5) Instead, the least attractive aspects of London 2012, the ZiL lanes and the Visa-only policy and McDonald's and Coca-Cola as purveyors of sustenance to a sporting nation, were smothered not only by the competition but by the ocean of good humour fostered by the joviality of the volunteers, the inspirational architecture and the attention given to the natural landscape (with apologies to those who had to move to make room for it all).
  • (6) Despite such brooding work, in person Stephens is lanky, jovially sweary, with a disconcerting habit of speaking in elegant sentences, and bookends our interview with heartfelt tributes to his wife and three children.
  • (7) One summer day in 1994, my best friend Steve – a gentle, jovial guy with the most disarming chuckle – called and asked me to meet him for lunch.
  • (8) What is both shocking and bewildering about Hunt’s jovial after-dinner remarks is that this is the considered view of someone whose life has been devoted to not taking the world for what it seems to be.
  • (9) His sister, remarkably jovial, wears black for their younger brother Vangelis, who died of nobody will say exactly what two years ago next month, aged 52.
  • (10) He was reported to have been in jovial form following the christening of his granddaughter at Staghall Church near Belturbet, Co Cavan on Boxing Day before returning to Mountjoy.
  • (11) He is courteous, almost jovial, though not quite endearing.
  • (12) For eight months we have lived on porridge and bread and smuggled yogurt,” says Nabil, a jovial clerk employed by a pharmaceutical company, who did not want his full name published for security reasons.
  • (13) An unusually jovial Putin asked the minister during the presentation on Friday how long the water had remained untouched by human hands.
  • (14) It cuts, for all its apparently relaxed joviality, against the zeitgeist of almost every other influence and impact upon these children in a digital, postmodern, post-moral society seeped in celebrity culture and the creatively pointless quest for quick-hit reward – as was fully intended by the Venezuelans who created El Sistema.
  • (15) One of the Demon’s men, a jovial Muscovite, gave us a number to call so we could tell his relatives where to find his body when he is killed.
  • (16) The front office was run by a jovial Cockney, Charles Vidler, who had been the butler at the Astors' country house, Cliveden, until he was fired for being found in Lord Astor's bed.
  • (17) On screen, he has a shrewd intensity but in person he's expansive and jovial.
  • (18) The jovial NBC Today Show anchor is one of eight local and national meteorologists the Obama administration invited to the White House for one-on-one interviews with the president.
  • (19) He was always cheerful and jovial, looking on the light side of life.
  • (20) Perhaps what Claire Alexander at the University of Manchester calls the “jovial bigotry” of Farage and his ilk has helped channel their rage.

Joyful


Definition:

  • (a.) Full of joy; having or causing joy; very glad; as, a joyful heart.

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.