What does gladness mean?
Word: Gladness
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Gladness means the feeling of being pleased or thankful about something.
Synonyms: joy, delight
Antonyms: sadness
How do you spell gladness?
Syllables: glad - ness
Tricky part: When people say this word quickly, the d almost disappears, so it comes out as glanness. Say the d clearly and it stays in the spelling.
Watch out for: glanness, glatness
Memory tip: Tap the table hard as you say the d in the middle of the word; that loud tap reminds you to write it.
Gladness in a sentence
Example 1: Tears of gladness filled Nani's eyes when we arrived for Diwali.
Example 2: She spoke with gladness about her best friend's return from Canada.
Example 3: There was gladness in the classroom when the test was put off till Monday.
Fun Fact
In Old English, glad was first used to mean bright and shining, and only later did it come to mean pleased.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word: gladness
a) sorrow
b) comfort
c) pride
d) calm
Show answer
a) sorrow. Sorrow is a heavy, sad feeling, the very opposite of feeling glad.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) pleasant
b) gledness
c) comfort
d) laughter
Show answer
b) gledness. The first part is glad, with an a, the same as in glass.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
sendgals
a) galdness
b) gladness
c) gladnses
d) glandess
Show answer
b) gladness. Glad is hiding in these letters; once you have it, the four left make the ending.
Word Makeup
Choose the suffix that completes the word:
glad
a) niss
b) nis
c) nes
d) ness
Show answer
d) ness. Glad + ness gives the feeling word, with the same double s as kindness.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these would most likely fill someone with gladness?
a) getting a letter from a best friend
b) losing a favourite pencil
c) missing the school bus
d) spilling juice on a new shirt
Show answer
a) getting a letter from a best friend
2. Pick the sentence in which gladness is used properly.
a) The gladness boy waved at us.
b) Her face lit up with gladness at the news.
c) He gladness ran to the gate.
d) They sang gladness all evening.
Show answer
b) Her face lit up with gladness at the news.
