Pleasure, delight, joy, delectation, enjoyment, fruition denote the agreeable emotion which accompanies the possession, acquisition, or expectation of something good or greatly desired.
Pleasure so strongly implies a feeling of satisfaction or gratification that it sometimes carries no implication of visible happiness or actual gladness.
Often, however, the term suggests an excitement or exaltation of the senses or of the mind that implies positive happiness or gladness.
Delight carries a stronger implication of liveliness, intensity, or obviousness in the satisfaction or gratification induced than pleasure and often suggests a less stable or enduring emotion.
Joy is often used in place of pleasure and still more often in place of delight. It is, however, especially appropriate when a deep-rooted, rapturous emotion is implied or when the happiness is so great as to be almost painful in its intensity.
Delectation and enjoyment differ in the main from the other words of this group in denoting the state of mind or the sensuous or emotional reactions of one who takes pleasure, delight, or joy in something.
But delectation often carries a strong connotation of amusement, diversion, or entertainment that gives occasion for delight.
Enjoyment, on the other hand, usually implies an attitude or a circumstance or a favorable response to a stimulus that tends to make one gratified or happy.
Fruition has become increasingly rare in its earlier sense of pleasure in possession or of enjoyment in attainment. In extended use realization or fulfillment is stressed, though there is still some suggestion of accompanying pleasure.