{
  "id": "happy.emotional",
  "term": "happy",
  "sense": "emotional",
  "pos": "adjective",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 18,
  "arena": "happy",
  "domain": "emotion",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "a state where a human feels pleasure and contentment",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "state.condition",
      "feel.sensory",
      "human.person",
      "pleasure.feeling",
      "content.material"
    ],
    "interaction": "when a human perceives pleasure and contentment through sensory feeling, the condition of happiness emerges",
    "novel_properties": [
      "sustained positive affect",
      "inner fulfillment",
      "emotional satisfaction"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In 2018, a child laughed and clapped at the Monterey Bay Aquarium while watching sea otters break abalone shells.",
      "domain": "everyday life"
    },
    {
      "text": "After Brazil won the 1970 World Cup, millions in Rio de Janeiro flooded the streets, dancing and singing until dawn.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    },
    {
      "text": "In a 2023 fMRI study at MIT, dopamine spikes were recorded in subjects viewing photos of loved ones.",
      "domain": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "state.condition",
      "note": "is-a",
      "type": "is-a"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "happier",
    "happiest",
    "happily",
    "happy"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "factual",
      "note": "Definition corrected to include 'contentment' as implied by original intent; missing constituent concepts added to components."
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-happy.emotional"
}