"happy ever after" meaning in English

See happy ever after in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: happy ever afters [plural]
Etymology: From happily ever after (adverb). Head templates: {{en-noun}} happy ever after (plural happy ever afters)
  1. (narratology) Synonym of happily ever after (“a story, or a conclusion to a story, in which all the loose ends of the plot are tied up, and all the main characters are left in a state of contentment or happiness”) Categories (topical): Narratology, Fairy tale, Plot devices Synonyms: eucatastrophe, fairy-tale ending, happy ending, happily ever after [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-happy_ever_after-en-noun-4NFpEuD9 Disambiguation of Fairy tale: 50 50 Disambiguation of Plot devices: 46 54 Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, narratology, sciences
  2. (by extension) Synonym of happily ever after (“a happy period of time which is imagined never to end; specifically, the state of happiness in which one or more people (typically a loving couple) dwell for the rest of his, her, their, etc., lives”) Tags: broadly Categories (topical): Fairy tale, Plot devices Synonyms: fairy-tale ending, happily ever after [synonym, synonym-of]
    Sense id: en-happy_ever_after-en-noun-O4l~cAOx Disambiguation of Fairy tale: 50 50 Disambiguation of Plot devices: 46 54 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 62 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 38 62 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 36 64

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From happily ever after (adverb).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "happy ever afters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "happy ever after (plural happy ever afters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Narratology",
          "orig": "en:Narratology",
          "parents": [
            "Drama",
            "Literature",
            "Theater",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Art",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fairy tale",
          "orig": "en:Fairy tale",
          "parents": [
            "Fiction",
            "Artistic works",
            "Art",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "46 54",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Plot devices",
          "orig": "en:Plot devices",
          "parents": [
            "Fiction",
            "Narratology",
            "Artistic works",
            "Drama",
            "Literature",
            "Art",
            "Theater",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of happily ever after (“a story, or a conclusion to a story, in which all the loose ends of the plot are tied up, and all the main characters are left in a state of contentment or happiness”)"
      ],
      "id": "en-happy_ever_after-en-noun-4NFpEuD9",
      "links": [
        [
          "narratology",
          "narratology"
        ],
        [
          "happily ever after",
          "happily ever after#English"
        ],
        [
          "story",
          "story#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "conclusion",
          "conclusion"
        ],
        [
          "loose end",
          "loose end"
        ],
        [
          "plot",
          "plot#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "tied up",
          "tie up"
        ],
        [
          "main",
          "main#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "characters",
          "character#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "left",
          "leave#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "state",
          "state#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "contentment",
          "contentment"
        ],
        [
          "happiness",
          "happiness"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(narratology) Synonym of happily ever after (“a story, or a conclusion to a story, in which all the loose ends of the plot are tied up, and all the main characters are left in a state of contentment or happiness”)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "eucatastrophe"
        },
        {
          "word": "fairy-tale ending"
        },
        {
          "word": "happy ending"
        },
        {
          "extra": "a story, or a conclusion to a story, in which all the loose ends of the plot are tied up, and all the main characters are left in a state of contentment or happiness",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "happily ever after"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "narratology",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "38 62",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "38 62",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "36 64",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 50",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fairy tale",
          "orig": "en:Fairy tale",
          "parents": [
            "Fiction",
            "Artistic works",
            "Art",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "46 54",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Plot devices",
          "orig": "en:Plot devices",
          "parents": [
            "Fiction",
            "Narratology",
            "Artistic works",
            "Drama",
            "Literature",
            "Art",
            "Theater",
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of happily ever after (“a happy period of time which is imagined never to end; specifically, the state of happiness in which one or more people (typically a loving couple) dwell for the rest of his, her, their, etc., lives”)"
      ],
      "id": "en-happy_ever_after-en-noun-O4l~cAOx",
      "links": [
        [
          "happily ever after",
          "happily ever after#English"
        ],
        [
          "happy",
          "happy#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "period of time",
          "period of time"
        ],
        [
          "imagined",
          "imagine#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "end",
          "end#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "people",
          "person#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "loving",
          "loving#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "couple",
          "couple#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "dwell",
          "dwell#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "rest",
          "rest#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "lives",
          "life#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) Synonym of happily ever after (“a happy period of time which is imagined never to end; specifically, the state of happiness in which one or more people (typically a loving couple) dwell for the rest of his, her, their, etc., lives”)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "fairy-tale ending"
        },
        {
          "extra": "(“a happy period of time which is imagined never to end; specifically, the state of happiness in which one or more people (typically a loving couple) dwell for the rest of his, her, their, etc., lives”)",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "happily ever after"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "happy ever after"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Fairy tale",
    "en:Plot devices"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From happily ever after (adverb).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "happy ever afters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "happy ever after (plural happy ever afters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Narratology"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of happily ever after (“a story, or a conclusion to a story, in which all the loose ends of the plot are tied up, and all the main characters are left in a state of contentment or happiness”)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "narratology",
          "narratology"
        ],
        [
          "happily ever after",
          "happily ever after#English"
        ],
        [
          "story",
          "story#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "conclusion",
          "conclusion"
        ],
        [
          "loose end",
          "loose end"
        ],
        [
          "plot",
          "plot#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "tied up",
          "tie up"
        ],
        [
          "main",
          "main#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "characters",
          "character#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "left",
          "leave#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "state",
          "state#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "contentment",
          "contentment"
        ],
        [
          "happiness",
          "happiness"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(narratology) Synonym of happily ever after (“a story, or a conclusion to a story, in which all the loose ends of the plot are tied up, and all the main characters are left in a state of contentment or happiness”)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "eucatastrophe"
        },
        {
          "word": "fairy-tale ending"
        },
        {
          "word": "happy ending"
        },
        {
          "extra": "a story, or a conclusion to a story, in which all the loose ends of the plot are tied up, and all the main characters are left in a state of contentment or happiness",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "happily ever after"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "narratology",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of happily ever after (“a happy period of time which is imagined never to end; specifically, the state of happiness in which one or more people (typically a loving couple) dwell for the rest of his, her, their, etc., lives”)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "happily ever after",
          "happily ever after#English"
        ],
        [
          "happy",
          "happy#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "period of time",
          "period of time"
        ],
        [
          "imagined",
          "imagine#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "end",
          "end#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "people",
          "person#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "loving",
          "loving#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "couple",
          "couple#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "dwell",
          "dwell#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "rest",
          "rest#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "lives",
          "life#Noun"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension) Synonym of happily ever after (“a happy period of time which is imagined never to end; specifically, the state of happiness in which one or more people (typically a loving couple) dwell for the rest of his, her, their, etc., lives”)"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "fairy-tale ending"
        },
        {
          "extra": "(“a happy period of time which is imagined never to end; specifically, the state of happiness in which one or more people (typically a loving couple) dwell for the rest of his, her, their, etc., lives”)",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "happily ever after"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "happy ever after"
}

Download raw JSONL data for happy ever after meaning in English (3.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-18 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (f2d86ce and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.