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I'm looking for a word that describe a person for having a gentle joy for being diligent. For example, a person spends their time and effort to learn a new word every morning. He does that because he believes that his vocabulary will be expanded some day, although there is no clear evidence that he will need to learn that word. One day, he meet that word and can recognize it without asking what it means. He has a gentle joy because of that.

What is the word for that joy? The word should have the diligent sense in it.

Example sentence:
- What keeps you consistence on learning vocab?
- I give me a gentle joy for being diligent, a _______

I have checked all of these synonyms but all of them cannot apply. They don't have the joy sense in it: conscientiousness, assiduousness, assiduity, hard work, application, concentration, effort, care, industriousness, rigor, meticulousness, thoroughness; perseverance, persistence, tenacity, dedication, commitment, tirelessness, indefatigability, doggedness

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  • What's wrong with using more than one word (do you have it on the tip of your tongue or do you just hope for it)? Also, what did a thesaurus suggest and of those why weren't they sufficient?
    – Mitch
    Jun 22, 2016 at 14:15
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    I don't think you're going to find a succinct enough word or phrase for both gentle joy and diligence but "pride" and "accomplishment" are both words that express the feeling of having achieved something and that usually involves diligence.
    – Kristina Lopez
    Jun 22, 2016 at 14:37
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    sedulous or assiduous are both words for taking care great care/diligence in something. I don't think there is a word that also includes joy - you'd need to qualify it in context, by saying something like "Mark enjoyed being sedulous".
    – Rome_Leader
    Jun 22, 2016 at 14:52
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    @Rome I always confuse sedulous with seditious
    – Mitch
    Jun 22, 2016 at 15:14
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    @Rome_Leader also alacrity (what I think is the winning answer) with celerity (speed)
    – Mitch
    Jun 22, 2016 at 17:26

2 Answers 2

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Have you considered alacrity?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alacrity

http://sentence.yourdictionary.com/alacrity

He learns a new word each day with eager alacrity.

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Gratify/gratifying/gratification contain a sense of moderate reward (think gratuity) as well as pleasure

  • What keeps you consistent on learning new vocabulary?
  • It's gratifying

Gratification W-B

1  reward, recompense; especially :  gratuity

2 the act of gratifying :  the state of being gratified

3 a source of satisfaction or pleasure

Gratifying Collins

giving one satisfaction or pleasure

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