cheerful

Questions about cheerful

What is another word for cheerful?

Across its 2 senses, cheerful has 2 distinct synonyms: pollyannaish, upbeat. Each belongs to a specific meaning, listed on this page under the sense it serves.

What is the opposite of cheerful?

The recorded antonym is depressing. Opposites are sense-specific too: this page shows which meaning each one is the opposite of, because a word rarely has a single opposite that holds for all of its senses.

Why are the synonyms for cheerful split into groups?

Because cheerful carries 2 recorded senses and each has its own set of substitutes. A single flat list would put words from unrelated meanings side by side with nothing to tell them apart, which is exactly how a writer picks the wrong one. The grouping comes from WordNet's synsets, not from an editorial judgement of ours.

Where do the synonyms for cheerful come from?

From Princeton University's WordNet, a lexical database maintained by lexicographers since 1985. A synonym here means a word form that shares a synset with this word — a set of forms interchangeable in one recorded context. Nothing on this page is generated by a language model.

Other views of cheerful

• Full entry for cheerfulAll 2 senses, with examples, usage labels, syllables and pronunciation.
• Rhymes for cheerfulWords matching from the last stressed vowel onward, grouped by syllable count.
• Thesaurus homeHow WordNet synsets work, and the collections built for synonym work.