Glass-half-full

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    optimistic idiomatic, not-comparable

    "Normally she is an extremely positive, glass half-full sort of girl, someone who can find the silver lining in any situation. However, when it came to her breakup, she refused to see the many positive things that could come from it..."

Example

More examples

"Tom's parents instilled in him a glass-half-full mentality."

Etymology

From the expression Is the glass half empty or half full?, the answer to which is said to determine whether a person is optimistic or pessimistic.

More for "glass-half-full"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.