euphoria
noun
Natalie AngierRita L. Atkinson et al.Clifton Brown
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Euphoria Has Greek Roots
Health and happiness are often linked, sometimes even in etymologies. Today euphoria generally refers to happiness, but it comes from euphoros, a Greek word that means “healthy.” Given that root, it’s unsurprising that in its original English uses euphoria was a medical term. A medical dictionary published in 1881 (The New Sydenham Society’s Lexicon of Medicine and the Allied Sciences), for example, defines euphoria as “well-being, or the perfect ease and comfort of healthy persons, especially when the sensation occurs in a sick person,” and the second edition of our own unabridged dictionary published in 1934 labels euphoria as a psychological term meaning “a sense of well-being and buoyancy.” The idea of buoyancy also connects to the word’s Greek roots: euphoros comes from a combination of the prefix eu-, meaning “well” or “easily,” and the verb pherein, meaning “to bear.” Modern physicians still use the term, but euphoria has since entered everyday usage as a word for happy feelings so intense one feels borne aloft—that is, as if one is floating on air.
Examples of euphoria in a Sentence
Jim Alexander, Oc Register, 29 Oct. 2025
Filmmaking is nitpicking, anxiety, fights, claustrophobia, exhaustion, euphoria.
—Susan Sontag, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2025
Yet, three years later, the euphoria was no longer there.
—Ray Rahman, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2025
The deal and spending euphoria are drawing parallels to the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s and even the 2008 financial crisis.
—Jaures Yip, CNBC, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for euphoria
Cite this Entry
“Euphoria.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/euphoria. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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Medical Definition
euphoria
noun
George Bartzokis et al., NeuropsychopharmacologyKai Jacobsen and Aaron Devor, Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies
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