gladness

plural gladnesses

1. countableuncountableThe state of being glad; joy.

   But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness.

   c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   1 more example

   But as time, as time will, drew on, and Watt's period of service on the ground floor approached its term, then this wish and this fear, and so this sorrow and this gladness, like so many other wishes and fears, so many other sorrows and gladnesses, grew duller and duller and gradually ceased to be felt, at all.

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

   Synonyms: gladsomeness, glee, blitheness, blithesomeness, cheerfulness, cheeriness, contentness, contentedness