Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Jovial |
JovialAdjective1. Full of or showing high-spirited merriment; "when hearts were young and gay"; "a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company"- Wordsworth; "the jolly crowd at the reunion"; "jolly old Saint Nick"; "a jovial old gentleman"; "have a merry Christmas"; "peals of merry laughter"; "a mirthful laugh". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "jovial" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Jovial \Jo"vi*al\, adjective. [French expression, from the Latin expression Jovialis pertaining to Jove. The planet Jupiter was thought to make those born under it joyful or jovial. See Jove.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | JOVIAL |
Literature | Jovial Merry and sociable, like those born under the planet Jupiter, which astrologers considered the happiest of the natal stars. "Our jovial star reigned at his birth." Shakespeare: Cymbeline, v. 4. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
JOVIAL is a computer programming language similar to Algol, but specialized for the development of embedded systems.JOVIAL stands for "Jules Own Version of the International Algorithmic Language." It was developed to write software for the electronics of military aircraft. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the U.S. military adopted a standardized CPU, the 1750A, and JOVIAL normally produces programs for that processor. JOVIAL is MIL-STD-1589, and is still widely used to update and maintain software on older, obsolescent military vehicles and aircraft. There are three dialects in common use: J3, J3B-2, and J73.
As of 2003, JOVIAL is still actively maintained and distributed by the USAF JOVIAL Integrated Tool Set (ITS) Program Office. The program office helps organizations reuse their old, reliable JOVIAL software by rehosting and retargeting the software to newer, more modern computer platforms and environments.
The standard package (the "integrated tool set" or ITS) contains a compiler, a MIL-STD-1750A assembler, linker, and simulator/debugger. It is available hosted from (runs on) either a DEC VAX or a PC. Versions are also available that target (produce executable code for) the Intel 80386 (and derivatives), MIPS R4000, AP-101, Zilog Z8002, and Motorola 68000 processors.
Notable systems using JOVIAL include the Advanced Cruise Missile, B-52, B-1, and B-2 bombers, C-130, C-141, and C-17 transport aircraft, F-15, F-16, F-18, and F-117 fighter aircraft, LANTIRN, U-2 aircraft, E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft, Special Operations Forces, Navy AEGIS cruisers, Army Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, F100, F117, F119 jet engines, and RL-10 rocket engines.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "JOVIAL programming language."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
JOVIAL | English | Jule's Own Version of the International Algebraic Language | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: JovialSynonyms: gay (adj), jocund (adj), jolly (adj), merry (adj), mirthful (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Amusement | Adjective: amusing, entertaining, diverting; Verb: recreational, recreative, lusory; pleasant; (pleasing); laughable; (ludicrous); witty; fun, festive, festal; jovial, jolly, jocund, roguish, rompish; playful, playful as a kitten; sportive, ludibrious. |
Cheerfulness | Merry as a cricket, merry as a grig, merry as a marriage bell; joyful, joyous, jocund, jovial; jolly as a thrush, jolly as a sandboy; blithesome; gleeful, gleesome; hilarious, rattling. |
Sociality | Phrase: " a crowd is not company "; " be bright and jovial among your guests tonight "; " his worth is warrant for his welcome "; " let's be red with mirth "; " welcome the coming speed the parting guest ". |
Convivial; festive, festal; jovial, jolly, hospitable. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Jovial |
| English words defined with "jovial": Bacchical, Bons vivants ♦ conviviality ♦ gay ♦ jocund, jollity, jolly, Jovialist, joviality, jovially ♦ merry, mirthful ♦ To make merry. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "jovial": Anacreon ♦ Basic JOVIAL, Benbow ♦ Capital Fellow, Compiler Language for Information Processing, CORAL 66 ♦ Fair ♦ J3, J73, Jolly Dog, Jolly God, JS, JTS ♦ Lazarillo de Tormes ♦ Sing Old Rose, SPL, SYMPL ♦ Tipsy. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "jovial": Encomium. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Jovial" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (breezy, cheerful, hearty, jocose, jocund, jolly, jovial, joyful, lighthearted, liltingly, merry), German (jocular, jovial, jovially, playful), Portuguese (blithe, blithesome, breezy, cant, canty, cheerful, convivial, debonair, gay, genial, jocular, joky, jolly, jovial, lively, mellow, merry, mirthful, rakish, resilient, rollicking, sprightly, winsome), Romanian (cheerful, convivial, jovial, jovially), Spanish (cheerful, cheery, friendly, gay, jolly, jovial, rollicking), Swedish (jovial). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | ![]() | The Jovial company / A. Brouner, pinxt. ; J. Williams, sculpt., pupil to W.W. Ryland. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Jovial" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 98.29% of the time. "Jovial" is used about 117 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 98.29% | 115 | 30,138 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.71% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 117 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "jovial": basic JOVIAL ♦ jovial person. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
jovial | 23 |
jovial watch | 9 |
equipment jovial test | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "jovial"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i qeshur (gay, genial, mirthful, smiling), gazmor (cheerful, cheery, convivial, debonair, easygoing, exhilarated, gay, genial, gladsome, gleeful, gleesome, hilarious, jaunty, jocular, jocund, jollier, jolly, joyful, joyous, light hearted, lively, merry, mirthful, perky, riant, set up, zippy). (various references) | |
Arabic | مرح (airiness, airy, be merry, blithe, breezy, bright, buoyancy, buoyant, cheerful, cheerfulness, cheering, chirpy, exult, facetious, festive, fresh, frisk, frisky, frolic, frolicsome, fun, gaiety, gay, glee, gleeful, have fun, hilarious, hilarity, jaunty, jocose, jocosity, jocund, jolly, joviality, joy, joyful, joyfulness, joyous, kittenish, lark, light, lightsome, lively, make merry, merriment, merry, merry making, mirth, mirthful, perkiness, perky, playful, playfulness, playing, rejoice, rollick, romp, sportive, sprightly, sunny, vivacious, vivacity, what fun, winsome). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | весел (airy, blithe, blithesome, boisterous, bright, buoyant, canty, cheery, chirp, chirpy, colorful, colourful, coltish, convivial, daft, debonair, exhilarated, festal, gamesome, gay, genial, gladsome, gleeful, gleesome, good humoured, good-humored, high, humorous, jaunty, jocular, jocund, joky, jolly, joyful, joyous, light, light hearted, lightsome, lively, mellow, merry, mirthful, peppy, perky, rackety, roistering, rollicking, rorty, rosy, saucy, slaphappy, sparkish, sportive, sporty, sprightly, swinging, upbeat, winsome), приветлив (affable, amiable, merry, sweet), добродушен (avuncular, easygoing, good hearted, good humoured, good natured, good tempered, good-humored, kind, mellow, pickwickian, placable). (various references) | |
Czech | veselý (blithesome, bright, cheerful, chirpy, convivial, exhilarated, gay, gleeful, happy, high-spirited, hilarious, humorous, jaunty, jocund, jolly, joyous, light hearted, lively, merry, mirthful, pleasant, rollicking, rorty, sportful, vivacious), bodrý (good-humored), žoviální (genial, rollicking). (various references) | |
Farsi | سعید (Auspicious, Blest, Happy), عیاش (Pleasurable, Wanton), طرب انگیز, خوش گذران (Luxurious, Sensual). (various references) | |
Finnish | lupsakka. (various references) | |
French | jovial (jocose, jocund, jolly, joyful). (various references) | |
German | heiter (alacritous, amusing, blithe, bright, brightly, buoyant, buoyantly, carefree, cheerful, cheerfully, cheery, clear, fair, fine, funny, gay, gayly, genially, glad, happily, happy, humorous, humorously, jocund, jovially, lighthearted, mellow, merry, mirthful, mirthfully, sanguine, serene, sunny, tranquil, untroubled). (various references) | |
Greek | κεφάτοσ (buoyant, cheerful, jaunty, merry), κεφάτος (breezy, in a happy mood, jolly, zestful), γελαστόσ (risible), πρόσχαροσ (cheerful, jolly), φαιδρόσ (blithe, cheerful, debonair, gay, genial, guy, hilarious, vivacious, winsome), εύθυμοσ (blithe, chirpy, convivial, debonair, festive, frabjous, gay, happy go lucky, hilarious, jocund, jolly, joyous, light hearted, merry, mirthful, resilient, sprightly, zippy), εύθυμος (convivial 2, gay, jolly, merry, playful), ευδιάθετος. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מתרו ן, שמח (cheerful, delighted, gay, glad, gleeful, gleesome, happy, jolly, joyful, joyous, merry, pleased). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kedélyes (convivial, good humoured, good natured, good-humored, good-natured, jocose, mellow), joviális (debonair, jocose). (various references) | |
Italian | gioviale (jocular, jolly), allegro (allegro, blithe, blithesome, breezy, bright, buoyant, cheerful, cheery, frisky, frolicsome, gay, hilarious, jocular, jolly, joyful, laughing, light hearted, lightsome, lively, merry, mirthful, perky, sportive, sprightly, sunny, wanton). (various references) | |
Manx | gennal (amiable, blithe, blithesome, cheerful, convivial, gay, genial, good-humoured, jocular, jolly, mirthful). (various references) | |
Norwegian | gemyttlig. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ovialjay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | jovial (blithe, blithesome, breezy, cant, canty, cheerful, convivial, debonair, gay, genial, jocular, joky, jolly, lively, mellow, merry, mirthful, rakish, resilient, rollicking, sprightly, winsome), alegre (alive, blithe, blithesome, bonny, boon, breezy, brisk, buoyant, buxom, canty, cheerful, cheery, chirpy, coltish, convivial, corky, diverting, entertaining, exhilarated, festal, festive, frolicsome, gamesome, gay, glad, gladsome, gleeful, happy, hilarious, holiday, jaunty, jocular, jocund, jolly, joyful, joyous, jubilant, larksome, laughing, light, light-hearted, lightsome, lively, merry, mirthful, peart, resilient, slaphappy, sportful, sportive, sprightly, tipsy, vivid, volatile, winsome). (various references) | |
Romanian | jovial (cheerful, convivial, jovially), voios (cheerful, cheerfully, exhilarated, festival, genial, genially, glad, gleeful, jaunty, jocund, jolly, joyful, joyous, mellow, merrily, merry, mirthful, saucy), vesel (blithe, blithesome, boon, breezy, bright, cheerful, cheerfully, cheery, chirpy, convivial, crank, debonair, elastic, feastful, festal, frisky, frolic, frolicsome, full-blooded, gaily, gamesome, gay, genial, glad, gladsome, gleeful, happy, hilarious, in full feather, in high feather, jauntily, jaunty, jocund, jolly, joyful, joyfully, joyous, lively, mellow, merry, mirthful, playful, pleasant, riant, saucy, sprightly, tails up, wanton), sociabil (clubby, communicative, companionable, conversable, convivial, gregarious, liveable, neighborly, neighbourly, sociable, social). (various references) | |
Russian | веселый (blithe, blithesome, breezy, canty, cheerful, cheery, chirpy, convivial, corky, debonair, exhilarated, exhilarating, festive, frolic, gamesome, gay, gleeful, hilarious, jocund, jolly, joyful, joyous, light hearted, lightsome, lively, merry, mirthful, perky, playful, pleasant, set up, sportful, sportive, sprightly). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | veseo (blithe, blithesome, canty, cheerful, exuberant, festive, frolic, gay, happy, jocose, jolly, joyful, joyous, lighthearted, lightsome, lively, merry, mirthful, perky, rejoicing, rollicking), žovijalan. (various references) | |
Spanish | jovial (cheerful, cheery, friendly, gay, jolly, rollicking). (various references) | |
Swedish | jovialisk, jovial, gladlynt (cheerful, gay, good humoured, good-humored, lightsome, merry, riant), gemytlig (comfortable, cosy, cozy, genial, good humoured, good natured, good-humored, goodnatured, good-natured, jolly), fryntlig (buxom, genial). (various references) | |
Thai | เริงร่า. (various references) | |
Turkish | sevinçli (elated, glad, gladsome, happy, joyful, joyous, mirthful, rejoicing), neşeli (airy, animate, animated, blithe, boon, breezy, bright, bucked, buoyant, buoyed up, cheerful, cheerfully, cheery, chirpy, cock-a-hoop, debonair, debonaire, easygoing, eupeptic, exhilarated, fit as a fiddle, full of beans, gamesome, gay, genial, gleeful, high, hilarious, jocund, jolly, joyful, joyous, lively, merry, merrymaking, mirthful, perky, rambunctious, rollicking, slaphappy, spirited, sportive, sprightly, sunny, upbeat, vivacious), keyifli (blissful, bucked, cheerful, cheerfully, cheery, cosy, delighted, elevated, fit as a fiddle, gay, in a good mood, jolly, merry, pleasant, pleased, rejoicing, up), şen şakrak (gaily, sprightly). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | товариський (associative, clubbable, communicative, companionable, comradely, convivial, neighborly, neighbourly, pally, sociable), веселий (airy, blithe, boon, breezy, bright, canty, cavalier, cheerful, cheery, chipper, chirpy, convivial, debonair, exhilarated, gay, happy go lucky, jolly, merry, mirthful, perky, pleasant, rackety, sportful, sunny). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vui vẻ (blithe, blithesome, boon, canty, cheery, chirk, debonair, gay, genial, glad, gladsome, good-humored, good-humoured, heartily, hearty, hilarious, jocular, jocund, jolly, laughing, merrily, mirthful, pleasant, sportful), vui tính (chirpy, good-humored, good-humoured, sonsie, sonsy, sportive). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Jovialis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "jovial": jovialities, joviality, jovially, jovialties, jovialty. (additional references) | |
| |
"Jovial" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Javal, Jogia, joiv, jova, jovail, joval, jovel, jovia, jovials, joviat, joviel, joviol, Junipall, ovial. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "jovial" (pronounced jō"vēul) |
| 4 | -v ē u l | alluvial, convivial, fluvial, pluvial, trivial. |
| 3 | -ē u l | industrial, actuarial, adverbial, adversarial, advertorial, aerial, ambassadorial, antibacterial, arboreal, Ariel, arterial, bacterial, biaxial, bicentennial, biennial, binomial, biomaterial, bronchial, burial, centennial, cereal, ceremonial, coaxial, collegial, colloquial, colonial, conspiratorial, curatorial, custodial, decennial, dictatorial, directorial, editorial, endometrial, entrepreneurial, equatorial, ethereal, extraterrestrial, extraterritorial, filial, gubernatorial, immaterial, immemorial, imperial, terrestrial, territorial, testimonial, intracranial, janitorial, laryngeal, lineal, magisterial, malarial, managerial, marsupial, material, matrilineal, matrimonial, medial, memorial, menial, mercurial, microbial, millennial, ministerial, myocardial, nomenclatorial, parochial, patrilineal, perennial, pictorial, polynomial, primordial, professorial, prosecutorial, proverbial, pseudopodial, quadrennial, radial, raptorial, remedial, reportorial, sartorial, secretarial, senatorial, serial, tracheal, triennial, tutorial, venereal, vestigial, vitriol. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-i-j-l-o-v" | |
-1 letter: viola, voila. | |
-2 letters: jail, jiao, oval, vail, vial, viol. | |
-3 letters: ail, avo, lav, oil, ova, via. | |
-4 letters: ai, al, jo, la, li, lo. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-i-j-l-o-v" | |
+2 letters: jovially, jovialty. | |
+3 letters: joviality. | |
+4 letters: jovialties. | |
+5 letters: jovialities. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Abbreviations | 13. Acronyms 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.