happily ever after

Meanings

1. 1phrasefixed phrase

   For the rest of their lives in a contented way, the typical ending given to a fairy tale.

   Grammar: Adverbial phrase after a verb: they lived happily ever after.

   Patterns

   • live happily ever after

   The prince and princess married and lived happily ever after.

   Every story my grandmother told ended with them living happily ever after.

   The film's last scene promises that they will live happily ever after.

2. 2nounsingularinformal

   An ideal future of lasting contentment, especially one pictured in a romantic or hopeful way.

   Grammar: Used as a noun, often with a: they want a happily ever after.

   Patterns

   • a happily ever after

   She believed that marriage guaranteed a happily ever after.

   Not every love story gets a happily ever after.

   He was still searching for his happily ever after.

Common combinations

live happily ever after

They hope to live happily ever after.

and they all lived happily ever after

The tale ended: and they all lived happily ever after.

find a happily ever after

He wanted to find his happily ever after.

promise of happily ever after

The story offers the promise of happily ever after.

not exactly happily ever after

Their wedding wasn't exactly happily ever after.

Synonyms and how they differ

in perfect happiness

This is more formal and has no fairy-tale feel, whereas happily ever after instantly suggests a story ending.

for good

For good means permanently and carries no sense of happiness.

forever happy

Forever happy sounds plainer and lacks the storybook tone of happily ever after.

Opposites

Word family

happy adjective

feeling pleasure or contentment

happily adverb

in a happy way

happiness noun

the state of being happy

ever after adverb

for all time from then on

Commonly confused: happily ever after or happy ending?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “happily ever after”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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