The handiest enjoy synonym is often like, love, relish, savor or appreciate, chosen by how much pleasure you mean and how slowly you take it in. Savor lingers, relish looks forward, and appreciate adds gratitude.
This page lays out another word for enjoy in three senses: taking pleasure, having a good time, and having a benefit such as good health. You will also get swaps for enjoyed in thank-you notes and reviews, the grammar that trips up learners, and the opposites.
Swatch at a glance
Best swaps
like, love, relish, savor, appreciatePart of speech
VerbMost formal
take pleasure in, appreciate, possessMost casual
be into, dig, have a blastStrongest
adore, revel in, loveAntonyms
dislike, hate, loatheWatch out
Enjoy takes an ing verb: enjoy swimming, never enjoy to swim.Word forms covered
enjoys, enjoyed, enjoying
Three things enjoy can mean
Most of the time, enjoy means getting pleasure from something. But it also covers having a good time in general (enjoy yourself) and having an advantage (enjoy good health). These need different replacements.
| Sense | Swap with | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Pleasure from something | relish, savor, love | She savored the last bite. |
| A good time | have fun, have a ball | We had a ball at the wedding. |
| A benefit | have, benefit from, boast | The town boasts clean beaches. |
For the third sense, never use love: the region loves mild winters sounds odd, while the region has mild winters sounds right.
Liking versus adoring: the strength scale
Left to right, the chips go from gentle to intense. Like is the everyday baseline. Be fond of is warm and a little old-fashioned. Relish adds eager pleasure, often about something coming up: I relish the chance. Love is strong but so common it has softened. Adore is the top, and it can sound gushing in work writing.
To compare likes and loves in more detail, see the like synonyms page.
Grammar notes for each enjoy synonym
- Enjoy needs an object or yourself: enjoy the show, enjoy yourself. On a menu or sign, plain enjoy is casual shorthand.
- Follow enjoy with an ing verb: I enjoy hiking.
- Like and love take either form: I like to hike, I like hiking.
- Delight in, revel in and take pleasure in need in plus a noun or ing verb.
- Appreciate takes a noun and often means valuing: I appreciate your help.
- Savor is spelled savour in British English.
An enjoyed synonym for notes and reviews
The past tense shows up most in thank-you messages and reviews. Repeating I really enjoyed in every line loses its effect.
- I enjoyed the dinner becomes I loved the dinner or the dinner was a treat.
- We enjoyed meeting you becomes it was a pleasure meeting you.
- I enjoyed your talk becomes I got a lot out of your talk.
- The book was enjoyed by all becomes the book was popular with everyone.
- She enjoyed great success becomes she had great success.
A follow-up email after an interview: "I enjoyed our conversation and enjoyed learning about the team." Better: "I appreciated our conversation and found the details about the team really useful." Appreciated adds courtesy, and the second clause now says something specific.
When the swap goes wrong
Appreciate can mean understand, as in I appreciate the risk, which has nothing to do with pleasure. Savor suits food, moments and victories, not chores. Revel in can sound smug if the pleasure comes from someone else's trouble. And endure is not a synonym, it is close to the opposite.
If you need a word for the pleasure itself, the pleasure synonyms page lists nouns like delight and satisfaction.
Opposites of enjoy
Dislike is the neutral opposite. Hate, loathe and detest are stronger, in roughly that order. Endure and suffer mean putting up with something unpleasant, and for the benefit sense the opposite is lack.
- He loathes long meetings.
- The village lacks a reliable bus service.
For the noun side of the same feeling, try fun synonyms.
Frequently asked questions
Which word is more formal than enjoy?
Take pleasure in and appreciate sound more formal. In a letter, it was a pleasure to is a polished alternative.
What can replace really enjoyed?
Loved, relished and thoroughly enjoyed all work. For an event, you can also write it was a real treat.
Is it enjoy to do or enjoy doing?
Enjoy doing is correct. Enjoy to do is a common error, especially among English learners.
Can I use appreciate instead of enjoy?
Yes when you want to add thanks or value, as in I appreciated the tour. It sounds more reserved and more polite than enjoyed.
What is the opposite of enjoy?
Dislike is the usual antonym. Hate, loathe and detest are stronger, and endure means putting up with something you do not like.
What does enjoy good health mean?
It means to have good health. Here enjoy means possess or benefit from, not take pleasure in.