PLEASANT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pleasant mean? 

• PLEASANT (adjective)
  The adjective PLEASANT has 2 senses:

1. affording pleasure; being in harmony with your taste or likings

2. (of persons) having pleasing manners or behavior

  Familiarity information: PLEASANT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLEASANT (adjective)

Comparative: pleasanter   
Superlative: pleasantest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Affording pleasure; being in harmony with your taste or likings

Context example:

pleasant sensations

Similar:

beautiful ((of weather) highly enjoyable)

dulcet (extremely pleasant in a gentle way)

enjoyable; gratifying; pleasurable (affording satisfaction or pleasure)

grateful (affording comfort or pleasure)

idyllic (suggestive of an idyll; charmingly simple and serene)

pleasing (pleasant or agreeable to the senses)

Also:

aesthetic; aesthetical; esthetic; esthetical (concerning or characterized by an appreciation of beauty or good taste)

agreeable (conforming to your own liking or feelings or nature)

good-natured (having an easygoing and cheerful disposition)

nice (pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance)

pleasing (giving pleasure and satisfaction)

Attribute:

pleasantness; sweetness (the quality of giving pleasure)

Antonym:

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

Derivation:

pleasance (a fundamental feeling that is hard to define but that people desire to experience)

pleasantness (the quality of giving pleasure)

please (give pleasure to or be pleasing to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(of persons) having pleasing manners or behavior

Context example:

I didn't enjoy it and probably wasn't a pleasant person to be around

Similar:

nice (pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance)

Derivation:

pleasantness (the feeling caused by agreeable stimuli; one pole of a continuum of states of feeling)

please (give satisfaction)

 Context examples 

The bustle of going was not pleasant.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Harriet seemed quite forgotten in the expectation of a pleasant party.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It was more pleasant than prudent.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He has a cut on one cheek and a mighty pleasant way with him, particularly in drink, has my mate Bill.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Of course, I did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family misfortune like this noised abroad.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For it was quite delightful to me, to find him so pleasant.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Besides, it was pleasant to be with him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It is really very good of you to come and sit with me, when you must have so many pleasanter demands upon your time.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He was a little gentleman, with glasses, thin in the face, but very pleasant in his ways, for he was laughing all the time that he was talking.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“It is pleasant to hear you say so,” said my uncle.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)