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From the definitions and examples I've seen, it seems that 喜悦 focuses more on
the _emotion_ of joy/happiness, and 歓喜 focuses more on the _experience_ of the
joy.

Or am I looking too far into it?
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2016-06-16T20:47:27.263
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2016-06-17T01:29:32.850
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question
words nuances synonyms
What's the difference between [歓喜]{かん・き} and [喜悦]{き・えつ}?
This is a good question, since I have never paid due attention to before, and
when I googled it **[some Japanese too have same question with
you.](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1478526049)**

The questioner went to ( probably a shrine ) on New Years Day and there he or
she bought written oracles ( probably 2 ) and one of the oracles says

> 歓喜あり

The other says

> 喜悦あるべし

The answerer is responding as follows.

> 「歓喜」「喜悦」は、ともに心からの喜びという意味なので、ほぼ同じです。
>
> Both 歓喜 and 喜悦 denotes the happines arising from deep inside one's heart, so
> that they do not have particular differences.

Hope mine helps even a bit.

Thank you.
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2016-06-16T21:16:13.630
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2016-06-16T21:16:13.630
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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When I see 歓喜の声を上げる, I have something "explosive" in mind, like this:

[![歓喜](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oEPss.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oEPss.png)

On the other hand, when I see 喜悦の声を上げる **in non-religious contexts** , what I
would have in mind is the voice of sensual pleasure, induced by things like
drugs or orgasm.

According to BCCWJ, 喜悦 is rarer and much more literary than 歓喜. 歓喜 frequently
appears in light novels and casual blog articles, whereas roughly half of the
examples of 喜悦 are from erotic scenes in novels, and the rest are mainly from
older novels and serious articles about art/religion/mythology/etc.

In religious contexts, unfortunately I'm not sure how 喜悦 is used. Hymns and
Bibles are full of counterintuitive expressions, and 喜悦 may be interchangeable
with 歓喜 and may refer to strong happiness in general.
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2016-06-17T01:29:32.850
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2016-06-17T01:29:32.850
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