Joyful means full of happiness. A joyful occasion, joyful noise, joyful reunion.
It is warmer and more formal than happy, and it belongs to occasions rather than moods — a joyful wedding, a joyful homecoming. It has a strong religious and musical use: make a joyful noise, the Joyful Mysteries. Note joyous, which is nearly the same and slightly more literary; joyfully; and that joy itself came into English from French and pushed the older English word aside.
1adjectivejoyfulFull of happiness.
“The wedding was a joyful day, full of music and laughter.”
joyful is a quality of happiness.
Also accepted in games: joyous
Joy plus -ful. Joy is from Old French joie, from Latin gaudia, and it displaced the Old English dream, which meant joy and music before it meant what you see asleep.
Middle English
joye
English
joy
English, today
joyful
Built from
From joy + -ful. joy comes from Middle English joye. The noun is from Middle English joye, borrowed from Old French joie, from Latin gaudia, neuter plural (mistaken as feminine singular) of Latin gaudium (“joy”), from gaudēre (“to be glad, rejoice”). a doublet of jo and gaudy. Displaced native ġefēa. The interjection is from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA