gleefully

adverb

as in cheerfully

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of gleefully Doncic capped the chippy matchup with flair, banking in a half-court shot at the buzzer and then gleefully pointing at the fuming rookie. — CBS News, 22 Oct. 2026 On Wednesday, the mood was gleefully electric as Atlanta comprehensively dismantled their opponents to take control of the series. — Don Riddell, CNN Money, 22 Oct. 2026 Both films are drenched with perverse subversions of romantic iconography to gleefully playful effect, right down to their respective Cupid and Prince Charming killer masks which look like they could have been crafted by the same person. — Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, IndieWire, 21 Oct. 2026 So what is this love potion, about which people used to so gleefully rhapsodize? — Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 17 Oct. 2026 Despite murder ballads being a country music tradition, programmers didn’t seem to embrace women doing it so gleefully. — Marissa R. Moss, Rolling Stone, 16 Oct. 2026 Chun-Li’s lighting kick is turned into something more realistic, while Russian grappler Zangief’s (Olivier Richters) piledriver is gleefully cartoonish. — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2026 Eight days later, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gleefully invited the nation to tune in, via live stream, for the death by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, scheduled for December 3rd. — Amy Davidson Sorkin, New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2026 The whole affair had a playfully casual mood, with Edwards casually eating his dinner while presenting the prizes and gleefully razzing the winners during their acceptance speeches. — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 15 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gleefully
  1. cheerfully
  2. delightedly
  3. merrily
  4. cheerily
  5. lightheartedly
  6. joyously
  7. joyfully
  8. happily
Adverb
  • There were hundreds of bikers milling around cheerfully in the showery sunshine and proudly displaying their hogs.
    — Cressida Leyshon, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2026
  • The camera pans across images of Boston’s historic Fenway Park and a grim-looking Schumer, contrasting those shots with footage of Collins cheerfully hobnobbing with Maine voters.
    — Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of cheerfully
Adverb
  • His daughter yelps delightedly as a calf wanders close to the fence.
    — Greg O'Keeffe, New York Times, 16 May 2026
  • Since the end of the Second World War, the United States and its allies had maintained a system of humanitarian interventionism, until the President so delightedly detonated it.
    — Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, 17 Jan. 2026
Definition of delightedly
Adverb
  • Daunt asked merrily, and led me in a zigzag through the parking lot of the Adnams brewery, then out to the bookshop, a chip-shop-size storefront with a blue exterior.
    — Nathan Heller, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2026
  • For the handful of teams chasing a pennant this month, life rolls merrily along.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of merrily
Adverb
  • In 2016, Brexiteers imagined that other European countries would follow their example and cheerily recover absolute sovereignty as liberated nation-states.
    — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Ashley Graham, co-founder of Lucci Lambrusco, cheerily celebrates the brand at Pizzeria Portofino in Chicago on July 15.
    — Brendan Le, PEOPLE, 16 July 2026
Definition of cheerily
Adverb
  • The idea of replacing caddies with animals, lightheartedly suggested by moderator Eben Novy-Williams?
    — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 4 Nov. 2025
  • Paltzik did not confirm the authenticity of the message but still suggested they were made lightheartedly.
    — Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 21 Oct. 2025
Definition of lightheartedly
Adverb
  • Still, weight loss and some subtle injectable treatments have been interpreted as something to be joyously celebrated with you-go-girl enthusiasm.
    — Marci Robin, Allure, 18 Oct. 2026
  • When Oscar halfheartedly tries to throw a ball into one of the set’s prop cubes and improbably makes the shot, the whole set goes joyously nuts, with the performers leaping up to embrace him and cavort around him.
    — Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of joyously
Adverb
  • And transforms into a person that just lets her freak flag fly, joyfully.
    — Mike Ryan, IndieWire, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Peralta pumped a fist and screamed joyfully walking off the mound in the sixth after fanning Petey Halpin swinging at a 3-2 changeup.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of joyfully
Adverb
  • Sometimes these stories end happily, with the hunter killing his buck and then coming back down to earth.
    — Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Minutes earlier the kid was happily playing in the exam room.
    — CNN Money, CNN Money, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of happily

Browse Nearby Words

gleeful
gleefully
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Cite this Entry

“Gleefully.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gleefully. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

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