Meanings
- uncountableEnjoyment of living; happiness, ebullience, zest for life.
2 LF (young 38 & 47 friends only) without lovers seeking similar for fun weekend in P'Town. Enjoy good food, dancing and joie de vivre.
1984 April 21, “P'Town for Memorial Day (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, page 182 more examples
By this point, I am losing enthusiasm. It’s really lonely going around and eating at places without a friend, and cold brown rice is hardly inspiring my joie de vivre.
2017 December 15, Ruby Lott-Lavigna, “I Spent a Day Eating at the Most Instagrammable Restaurants of 2017”, in VICEBut still, it was mostly just the same thing, man. I think you lose sight of the joie de vivre of day-to-day living when you start focusing on the fact you're not twelve years old anymore.
2025 May 21, Northernlion [pseudonym; Ryan Letourneau], 1:02:47 from the start, in I got more dragons than a den of sorts (Monster Train 2), via YouTube, archived from the original on 01 Jan 2026
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Frenchjoie de vivre
- Englishjoie de vivre
Borrowed from French joie de vivre (literally “joy of living”).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Basque bizipoz
- bizipozenjoyment of living, zest for life
Chinese Mandarin 生活情趣, 生活樂趣 /生活乐趣
- 生活情趣 (shēnghuó qíngqù)enjoyment of living, zest for life
- 生活樂趣 /生活乐趣 (shēnghuó lèqù)enjoyment of living, zest for life
Danish livsglæde, livslyst
- livsglædeenjoyment of living, zest for life
- livslystenjoyment of living, zest for life
Dutch levensvreugde, levenslust
- levensvreugdeenjoyment of living, zest for life
- levenslustenjoyment of living, zest for life
- joie de vivreenjoyment of living, zest for life
Esperanto vivĝojo
- vivĝojoenjoyment of living, zest for life
Finnish elämänilo, elämänhalu
- elämäniloenjoyment of living, zest for life
- elämänhaluenjoyment of living, zest for life
French joie de vivre
- joie de vivreenjoyment of living, zest for life
German Lebensfreude, Lebenslust
- Lebensfreudeenjoyment of living, zest for life
- Lebenslustenjoyment of living, zest for life
Hindi जीने की ख़ुशी
- जीने की ख़ुशी (jīne kī xuśī)enjoyment of living, zest for life
Hungarian életöröm
- életörömenjoyment of living, zest for life
Icelandic lífsgleði
- lífsgleðienjoyment of living, zest for life
Italian gioia di vivere
- gioia di vivereenjoyment of living, zest for life
Japanese 生きる歓び
- 生きる歓び (ikiru yorokobi)enjoyment of living, zest for life
Latvian dzīvesprieks, dzīves prieks
- dzīvesprieksenjoyment of living, zest for life
- dzīves prieksenjoyment of living, zest for life
Norwegian Bokmål livsglede, livslyst
- livsgledeenjoyment of living, zest for life
- livslystenjoyment of living, zest for life
Polish radość życia
- radość życiaenjoyment of living, zest for life
Portuguese alegria de viver
- alegria de viverenjoyment of living, zest for life
Romanian bucurie de a trăi
- bucurie de a trăienjoyment of living, zest for life
Russian жизнера́достность
- жизнера́достность (žiznerádostnostʹ)enjoyment of living, zest for life
Spanish alegría de vivir
- alegría de vivirenjoyment of living, zest for life
Swedish livsglädje, livslust
- livsglädjeenjoyment of living, zest for life
- livslustenjoyment of living, zest for life
Ukrainian життєра́дісність
- життєра́дісність (žyttjerádisnistʹ)enjoyment of living, zest for life
Vietnamese niềm vui sống
- niềm vui sốngenjoyment of living, zest for life
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with joie de vivre
All rhymes →Cite this entry
joie de vivre. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joie%20de%20vivre
“joie de vivre.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joie%20de%20vivre. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “joie de vivre,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/joie%20de%20vivre.
Source: joie de vivre on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.