humour

1. 1.

   a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling

   “whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time”

   “he was in a bad humor”

   Synonymstempermoodhumor

   Broaderfeeling

   Narrowerpeevesulkgood humorill humor
2. 2.

   a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter

   Synonymswithumorwitticismwittiness

   Broadermessage

   Narrowerjeu d'espritbon motesprit de l'escalierpungencysarcasmreparteejokecaricaturecartoonfun
3. 3.

   (Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state

   “the humors are blood and phlegm and yellow and black bile”

   Synonymshumor

   Broaderbody substance

   physiology · Middle Ages · antiquity

4. 4.

   the liquid parts of the body

   Synonymsliquid body substancebodily fluidbody fluidhumor

   Broaderbody substance

   Narroweraqueous humorvitreous humorendolymphperilymphextracellular fluidintracellular fluidjuicekaryolymphmilkamniotic fluid
5. 5.

   the quality of being funny

   “I fail to see the humor in it”

   Synonymshumor

   Broaderquality

   Narrowercomicality
6. 6.

   the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous

   “she didn't appreciate my humor”

   “you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor”

   Synonymshumorsense of humorsense of humour

   Broaderplayfulness

1. 1.

   put into a good mood

   Synonymshumor

   Broadergratify

Other forms of humour

plural

humours·

past tense

humoured·

present participle

humouring·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about humour

What does humour mean?

humour means "a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in humour?

humour has 2 syllables: hu-mour. The stress falls on "hu". In IPA it is /ˈhjumɚ/.

What is another word for humour?

Close synonyms include temper, mood, humor, wit, humor. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is humour a common word?

humour is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with humour?

1 word rhymes with humour. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.