Rapture is a feeling of overwhelming joy and delight, so intense it almost lifts you out of yourself. When you experience rapture, you're completely transported by happiness: a musician might feel rapture while playing a perfect piece, or you might be in rapture watching the first snowfall of winter.

The word suggests something beyond ordinary happiness. You might be happy to get a good grade, but you'd feel rapture if you won a major science competition you'd worked toward for years. A nature photographer might describe the rapture of finally spotting a rare bird after months of searching.

When something fills you with rapture, it captures your complete attention and emotion. You're enchanted, thrilled, and overwhelmed with delight.

Writers often describe someone as being “in raptures” over something wonderful, or having a “rapturous” response to an experience. The word enrapture means to fill someone with this intense joy. A beautiful sunset might enrapture you, holding you spellbound with its colors and light.