jollity

noun

jol·​li·​ty ˈjä-lə-tē How to pronounce jollity (audio)
plural jollities
1
: the quality or state of being jolly : merriment
2
British : a festive gathering

Examples of jollity in a Sentence

I love all of the warmhearted jollity of the holiday season.
Recent Examples on the Web But even aside from that, Fallon, despite the Strike Force’s five-way jollity, seems like the group’s distractible odd man out. Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2023 Both are also generally spared the over-emphatic jollity that Dehnert has evidently encouraged as a way of plowing through difficult passages of dialogue and forcing the weird jokes to bloom. Jesse Green, New York Times, 27 July 2023 And so, in two gorgeous numbers, all the manic jollity disappears. Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023 More jollity ensued in the fourth. John Shea, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Nov. 2021 New York brought a bit more jollity to his work. Matthew Schneier, Curbed, 14 Sep. 2021 Like the bathtub in her garden, everything in her home broadcasts jollity. John Lahr, The New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2022 Barbecue, beer and jollity: Tailgating was sorely missed last fall, so expect packed parking lots and tons of fun at the Coliseum for USC games and the Rose Bowl for UCLA games. Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2021 While the jollity may look a bit different from city to city, these global destinations keep the holiday cheer going year after year. Caitlin Morton, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Nov. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'jollity.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of jollity was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near jollity

Cite this Entry

“Jollity.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jollity. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

jollity

noun
jol·​li·​ty ˈjäl-ət-ē How to pronounce jollity (audio)
plural jollities

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