Blissful means feeling or showing perfect happiness and peace. When you're blissful, you feel completely content, like everything in the world is exactly as it should be, a deeper, more complete joy than ordinary happiness.

Imagine lying in a hammock on a perfect summer afternoon, reading your favorite book with nothing to worry about. That feeling of total relaxation and joy is blissful. A baby sleeping peacefully in her mother or father's arms might have a blissful expression on her face. After weeks of practice, a musician might feel blissful satisfaction when she finally masters a difficult piece.

The word suggests more than temporary excitement or fun. Blissful moments have a dreamy, almost magical quality to them. You might feel blissful watching snow fall on a quiet morning, or floating in a calm lake on a warm day, or spending an unhurried afternoon with your best friend.

Bliss is the noun form: a state of perfect happiness. When someone lives in blissful ignorance, they're happy because they don't know about something that might trouble them. People often describe newlyweds as blissfully happy, vacations as blissful escapes, or peaceful moments as times of pure bliss.