The present paper deals with the results of a comparative analysis carried out on the seme stocks of two specifically chosen lexico-semantic fields in English and Slovak. It indicates the possibilities of their application not only in lexicography, didactics and intercultural studies, but also in the theory and practice of translation. Nouns denoting happiness with all their meanings are quantitatively and qualitatively analysed and the obtained linguistic data subsequently used in contrastive studies. They presuppose an application of tertium comparationis – the semantic reference of the nouns denoting happiness to emotional states and processes of English and Slovak people.