gladness

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The state of being glad; a pleased or joyful condition of mind; cheerfulness; a feeling of joy and exhilaration, usually of a strong yet quiet and temperate character.
• noun Synonyms Gladness, Joy, Pleasure, Delight, Triumph. Gladness is less often used of a weak feeling than glad; it generally stands for a feeling that is strong but tranquil, and showing itself chiefly iu the face. Hence it is often used poetically of certain aspects of nature. Joy is more vivid and demonstrative. This distinction between gladness and joy is abundantly illustrated in the Bible. Pleasure is the most general of these words, representing all degrees of feeling, and vicious or harmful indulgence as well as harmless enjoyment. In its primary sense it indicates a feeling less distinctively cheerful than gladness and less profound or demonstrative than joy, but with much of glow. Delight is a high degree of pleasure; formerly the word was much used for low pleasure (see quotation from Milton under delight), but it has been redeemed so that it is now rarely used for anything but an ecstatic pleasure or joy. Triumph is often used for joy over success, especially joy in victory. All these words may express malign feelings, as joy in the adversities of a rival, except gladness, which generally expresses a pure and worthy feeling. See animation, mirth, hilarity, happiness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun State or quality of being glad; pleasure; joyful satisfaction; cheerfulness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The state of being glad; joy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun experiencing joy and pleasure