Learn English – “A feeling of content” or “A feeling of contentment”

vocabulary

I'm a native English user. I am used to using "content" as a noun, adjective and verb but when I use it as a noun, I usually use content rather than contentment. I checked the dictionaries and both are correct.

But which is more common and what's the difference if both are correct? Any nuance difference? I rarely use "contentment" as I feel the word sounds a bit cheesy and I don't use a "bigger" sounding word when a simpler word is available.

I used "content" as a noun in that form (and not as contents in a box) and somebody corrected me saying it's "contentment". I'm very sure I have seen "content" used in that form in many newspapers and books over my 33 years. Who's right?

Best Answer

Yes, you can use content as you have there. An example from the link:

the greater part of the century was a time of content

The main difference (according to the dictionary I linked to) is that content as a mass noun means "a state of satisfaction" whereas contentment means "a state of happiness and satisfaction".

As to the popularity of the phrases in your title:

Google ngram of "a feeling of content" vs "a feeling of contentment"

(Click the image to go to the site)

Google Ngrams clearly shows that content used in that way has greatly decreased in popularity in the last eighty years. That doesn't mean it's wrong, but it could become archaic usage over the next few decades.