Standard Lemma guide

jovial

adj · noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈd͡ʒəʊ.vɪ.əl/
  • General-American: /ˈd͡ʒoʊ.vɪ.əl/
  • /ˈd͡ʒoʊ.vəl/ Appalachians, archaic
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: JH OW1 V IY0 AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Cheerful and good-humoured; jolly, merry.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: berserk, blissed out, blithe, buoyant, chirpy, blithesome, bonnie, bright, cheerful, cheerly, cheery, chuffed, cock-a-hoop, content, contented, convivial, delighted, ebullient, ecstatic, elated, enthusiastic, euphoric, excited, exhilarated, exuberant, exultant, fat and happy, gassed, gay, gayful, giddy, glad, gladsome, gleeful, gleesome, happy, hearty, hyped, high on life, jovial, joyful, joyous, merry, mirthsome, on cloud nine, overjoyed, overjoyous, over the moon, pacific, perky, placated, pleased, satisfied, stoked, thrilled, tickled pink, triumphant, vivacious, wealful, happy as a clam, happy as a clam at high water, happy as a lark, happy as a pig in mud, happy as a pig in shit, happy as a prince, happy as Larry, happy as the day is long, merry as a cricket, merry as a grig

Antonyms: saturnine, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen, cut up, damp, dejected, depressed, despondent, disgruntled, disconsolate, disheartened, dismal, doleful, dolesome, down, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, downsome, dull, elegiac, elegious, forlorn, gloomy, glum, grief-stricken, grieving, heavy-hearted, heartsore, heartsick, inconsolable, infelicitous, jawfallen, joyless, lachrymose, lamentful, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, lumpish, melancholic, melancholy, miserable, moody, mopey, morose, mournful, passionate, plaintive, Plutonian, Plutonic, querulous, ruthful, sad, saddened, shattered, solemn, sombre, sorrowful, sorrow-ridden, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, unhappy, unlively, wistful, woe, woebegone, woeful, wretched

2

adj

Meaning 2

Pertaining to the astrological influence of the planet Jupiter; having the characteristics of a person under such influence (see sense 1).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable, obsolete

Topics: astrology, human-sciences, mysticism, philosophy, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Pertaining to the planet Jupiter; Jovian.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable, obsolete

Topics: astronomy, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Pertaining to the Roman god Jove or Jupiter (the counterpart of the Greek god Zeus), the god of the sky and thunder and the king of the gods; Jovian.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Roman, not-comparable, obsolete

Topics: human-sciences, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

An inhabitant of the planet Jupiter; a Jovian.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: literature, media, publishing, science-fiction

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

full of or showing high-spirited merriment- Wordsworth

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • when hearts were young and gay
  • a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company
  • the jolly crowd at the reunion
  • jolly old Saint Nick
  • a jovial old gentleman
  • have a merry Christmas
  • peals of merry laughter
  • a mirthful laugh

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: gay, jocund, jolly, merry, mirthful

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

First attested in 1590; borrowed from Middle French jovial (“under the influence of Jupiter; of Jove; jovial, jolly”), from Italian gioviale (“(now obsolete) born under the influence of the planet Jupiter”) (attested in Dante, Paradiso, canto XVIII, early 14th century), from Late Latin Ioviālis (“relating to the Roman god Jupiter”), from Iuppiter, Iovis (“the Roman god Jove or Jupiter, counterpart of the Greek god Zeus”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dyew- (“to be bright; heaven, sky”)) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship); analysable as Jove + -ial. Sense 1 (“cheerful and good-humoured”) refers to the fact that individuals born under the astrological influence of the planet Jupiter were believed to have that disposition.

See jovial.

Across languages

Translations

48 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Assamese: হাঁহিৰাম (hãhiram) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Assamese: ৰাংঢালী (raṅdhali) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Assamese: ৰঙিয়াল (roṅial) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Catalan: jovial — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Cebuano: alegre — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Cebuano: malipayon — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Czech: žoviální — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Dutch: joviaal — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Dutch: gemoedelijk — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Esperanto: joviala — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Esperanto: gajega — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Finnish: lupsakka — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Finnish: veikeä — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • French: jovial — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Georgian: გულღია (gulɣia) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Georgian: მხიარული (mxiaruli) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Georgian: სამხიარულო (samxiarulo) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • German: jovial — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • German: fröhlich — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • German: heiter — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Hungarian: joviális — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Hungarian: vidám — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Ido: joyema — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Macedonian: весел (vesel) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Māori: pukukata — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Marathi: आनंदी (ānandī) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Plautdietsch: froo — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Plautdietsch: freelich — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Plautdietsch: schaftich — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Polish: jowialny — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Polish: wesoły — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Portuguese: jovial — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Russian: весёлый (vesjólyj) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Russian: жовиальный (žovialʹnyj) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Sanskrit: रंसु (raṃsu) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Serbo-Croatian: жо̏вија̄лан — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Serbo-Croatian: žȍvijālan — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Lower Sorbian: wjasoły — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Spanish: jovial — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Spanish: alegre — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Spanish: jacarandoso — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Spanish: risueño — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Swedish: jovialisk — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Tagalog: hobyal — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Tagalog: masayahin — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Tamil: சௌல் (caul) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Ukrainian: веселий (veselyj) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry
  • Ukrainian: товариський (tovarysʹkyj) — cheerful and good-humoured — see also jolly, merry