humour meaning

humour as a noun

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

   Synonyms: wit, humor, witticism, wittiness

   Type of: message

   Kinds: jeu d'esprit, bon mot, esprit de l'escalier, pungency, sarcasm, repartee, joke, caricature, cartoon, fun, ribaldry, topper

   Related forms: humourous, humourist

2. 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

   Synonyms: humor, sense of humor, sense of humour

   Type of: playfulness

   Related forms: humourous, humourist

3. 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

   Synonyms: temper, mood, humor

   Type of: feeling

   Kinds: peeve, sulk, good humor, ill humor

4. the quality of being funny
   • I fail to see the humor in it

   Synonyms: humor

   Type of: quality

   Kinds: comicality

   Related forms: humourous, humourist

5. (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

   Synonyms: humor

   Type of: body substance

6. the liquid parts of the body

   Synonyms: liquid body substance, bodily fluid, body fluid, humor

   Type of: body substance

   Kinds: aqueous humor, vitreous humor, endolymph, perilymph, extracellular fluid, intracellular fluid, juice, karyolymph, milk, amniotic fluid, blood, serum

humour as a verb

1. put into a good mood

   Synonyms: humor

   Type of: gratify

humour in a sentence

• The joke loses its humour when the clown himself laughs.
• In many scenes in the novel, a gentle humour is on display.
• His dark humour doesn't go down well with everyone.
• Those who possess a good sense of humour are special people.
• His sense of humour wasn't everyone's cup of tea.

How to pronounce humour

humour is pronounced /ˈhjuːmə/ in British English and /ˈhjumɚ/ in American English. It has 2 syllables, with the stress on the first syllable.

Words that rhyme with humour

• rumor
• tumor
• consumer
• puma
• rumour