Standard Lemma guide

humour

noun · verb · 13 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈhjuː.mə(ɹ)/
  • General-American: /ˈhjuːmɚ/
  • General-American: /ˈjuːmɚ/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -uːmə(ɹ)
  • CMU ARPABET: HH Y UW1 M ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, uncountable, usually

Examples

  • She has a great sense of humour, and I always laugh a lot whenever we get together.
  • The sensitive subject was treated with humour, but in such way that no one was offended.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: amusingness, comedy, comicality, wit

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, uncountable, usually

Examples

  • He was in a particularly vile humour that afternoon.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: mood

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Any of the fluids in an animal body, especially the four "cardinal humours" of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, archaic, historical, uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bodily fluid

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, uncountable, usually

Topics: medicine, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

Moist vapour, moisture.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, obsolete, uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To pacify by indulging.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, transitive

Examples

  • I know you don't believe my story, but humour me for a minute and imagine it to be true.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • she didn't appreciate my humor
  • you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: humor, sense of humor, sense of humour

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: playfulness, fun

8

noun

Meaning 8

the quality of being funny

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • I fail to see the humor in it

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: humor

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: quality

Narrower terms: comicality

9

noun

Meaning 9

the liquid parts of the body

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

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

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: body substance

Narrower terms: aqueous humor, aqueous humour, vitreous humor, vitreous humour, vitreous body, endolymph, perilymph, extracellular fluid, ECF, intracellular fluid, juice, succus, karyolymph, milk, amniotic fluid, amnionic fluid, waters, blood, serum, blood serum, chyle, lymph, semen, seed, seminal fluid, ejaculate, cum, come, ink, secretion, black bile, melancholy, yellow bile, choler, lochia, pus, purulence, suppuration, ichor, sanies, festering, spinal fluid, cerebrospinal fluid

10

noun

Meaning 10

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the humors are blood and phlegm and yellow and black bile

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: humor

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: body substance

11

noun

Meaning 11

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: wit, humor, witticism, wittiness

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: message, content, subject matter, substance

Narrower terms: jeu d'esprit, bon mot, mot, esprit de l'escalier, pungency, bite, sarcasm, irony, satire, caustic remark, repartee, joke, gag, laugh, jest, jape, caricature, imitation, impersonation, cartoon, sketch, fun, play, sport, ribaldry, topper

12

noun

Meaning 12

a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time
  • he was in a bad humor

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: temper, mood, humor

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: feeling

Narrower terms: peeve, sulk, sulkiness, good humor, good humour, good temper, amiability, ill humor, ill humour, distemper

13

verb

Meaning 13

put into a good mood

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: humor

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: gratify, pander, indulge

History

Etymology

From Middle English humour, from Old French humor, humour, from Latin hūmor, correctly ūmor (“liquid”), from hūmeō, correctly ūmeō (“to be moist”). The h in these words, which was silent in late Classical Latin, is folk etymological, due to the erroneous association with the word humus (“soil”). The shift in meaning "liquid" > "mood" is attributed to the classical system of physiology, where human behaviour is regulated by four bodily humours (fluids). The sense "mood" gave rise to the verb sense "to give in to someone's mood or whim" and, by narrowing of meaning, the sense "wit".

Across languages

Translations

163 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: humor — wit
  • Arabic: فُكَاهَة (fukāha) — wit
  • Arabic: دُعَابَة (duʕāba) — wit
  • Armenian: հումար (humar) — wit
  • Azerbaijani: yumor — wit
  • Azerbaijani: zarafat — wit
  • Belarusian: гу́мар (húmar) — wit
  • Bulgarian: ху́мор (húmor) — wit
  • Burmese: ဟာသ (hasa.) — wit
  • Catalan: humor — wit
  • Cebuano: kataw'anan — wit
  • Chinese Mandarin: 幽默 (yōumò) — wit
  • Chinese Mandarin: 諧謔 /谐谑 (xiéxuè, xiénüè) — wit
  • Czech: humor — wit
  • Danish: humor — wit
  • Dutch: humor — wit
  • Esperanto: humuro — wit
  • Estonian: huumor — wit
  • Finnish: huumori — wit
  • French: humour — wit
  • Georgian: იუმორი (iumori) — wit
  • German: Humor — wit
  • Greek: χιούμορ (chioúmor) — wit
  • Hebrew: הוּמוֹר (humór) — wit
  • Hungarian: humor — wit
  • Hungarian: komikum — wit
  • Icelandic: húmor — wit
  • Indonesian: humor — wit
  • Indonesian: kelakar — wit
  • Interlingua: humor — wit
  • Irish: greann — wit
  • Italian: humour — wit
  • Italian: umorismo — wit
  • Japanese: ユーモア (yūmoa) — wit
  • Japanese: 諧謔 (kaigyaku) — wit
  • Japanese: 滑稽さ — wit
  • Kazakh: әзіл-оспақ (äzıl-ospaq) — wit
  • Khmer: ការកំប្លែង (kaa kɑmplɛɛng) — wit
  • Korean: 유머 (yumeo) — wit
  • Korean: 해학 (haehak) — wit
  • Kyrgyz: юмор (yumor) — wit
  • Kyrgyz: азил (azil) — wit
  • Latvian: humors — wit
  • Lithuanian: humoras — wit
  • Macedonian: хумор (humor) — wit
  • Malayalam: നർമ്മം (naṟmmaṁ) — wit
  • Malayalam: ഹാസ്യം (hāsyaṁ) — wit
  • Malayalam: തമാശ (tamāśa) — wit
  • Māori: manawareka — wit
  • Norwegian Bokmål: humor — wit
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: humor — wit
  • Persian: شوخی (šuxi) — wit
  • Plautdietsch: Spos — wit
  • Polish: humor — wit
  • Portuguese: humor — wit
  • Romanian: umor — wit
  • Russian: ю́мор (júmor) — wit
  • Scottish Gaelic: àbhachd — wit
  • Serbo-Croatian: ху̀мор — wit
  • Serbo-Croatian: hùmor — wit
  • Slovak: humor — wit
  • Slovene: humor — wit
  • Spanish: humor — wit
  • Spanish: gracia — wit
  • Swedish: humor — wit
  • Tagalog: balantong — wit
  • Tajik: зарофат (zarofat) — wit
  • Tatar: юмор (yumor) — wit
  • Telugu: హాస్యం (hāsyaṁ) — wit
  • Turkish: mizah — wit
  • Turkish: şaka — wit
  • Udmurt: серембур (śerembur) — wit
  • Ukrainian: гу́мор (húmor) — wit
  • Uzbek: yumor — wit
  • Uzbek: hazil — wit
  • Uzbek: mutoyiba — wit
  • Vietnamese: sự hài hước — wit
  • Arabic: مِزَاج (mizāj) — mood
  • Belarusian: настро́й (nastrój) — mood
  • Bulgarian: настрое́ние (nastroénie) — mood
  • Catalan: humor — mood
  • Chinese Mandarin: 心情 (xīnqíng) — mood
  • Czech: nálada — mood
  • Danish: humør — mood
  • Dutch: stemming — mood
  • Dutch: humeur — mood
  • Esperanto: humoro — mood
  • Finnish: tuuli — mood
  • French: humeur — mood
  • French: disposition — mood
  • German: Laune — mood
  • German: Humor — mood
  • German: Stimmung — mood
  • Hungarian: kedv — mood
  • Hungarian: hangulat — mood
  • Hungarian: humor — mood
  • Hungarian: kedély — mood
  • Hungarian: kedélyállapot — mood
  • Icelandic: skap — mood
  • Interlingua: humor — mood
  • Irish: giúmar — mood
  • Italian: umore — mood
  • Japanese: 気分 (kibun) — mood
  • Japanese: 気持ち (kimochi) — mood
  • Korean: 기분 (gibun) — mood
  • Latvian: garastāvoklis — mood
  • Lithuanian: nuotaika — mood
  • Lithuanian: nusiteikimas — mood
  • Norwegian Bokmål: humør — mood
  • Persian: گش (gaš) — mood
  • Piedmontese: umor — mood
  • Polish: humor — mood
  • Polish: nastrój — mood
  • Portuguese: humor — mood
  • Russian: настрое́ние (nastrojénije) — mood
  • Serbo-Croatian: расположење — mood
  • Serbo-Croatian: raspoloženje — mood
  • Slovak: nálada — mood
  • Slovene: razpoloženje — mood
  • Spanish: humor — mood
  • Swedish: humör — mood
  • Ukrainian: на́стрій (nástrij) — mood
  • Arabic: خِلْط (ḵilṭ) — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Arabic: أَخْلَاط (ʔaḵlāṭ) — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Chinese Mandarin: 體液 /体液 (tǐyè) — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Esperanto: humoro — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Finnish: perusneste — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • French: humeur — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • German: Körpersaft — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • German: Saft — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Ancient Greek: ῥεῦμα (rheûma) — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Ancient Greek: χυμός (khumós) — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Hungarian: testnedv — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Latin: hūmor — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Russian: гумор (gumor) — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Spanish: humor — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Spanish: aguadija — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Swedish: kroppsvätska — historical: any of the four cardinal humors
  • Bulgarian: угаждам (ugaždam) — to pacify by indulging
  • Dutch: tegemoet komen — to pacify by indulging
  • Dutch: paaien — to pacify by indulging
  • Dutch: toegeven — to pacify by indulging
  • Finnish: olla mieliksi — to pacify by indulging
  • French: amadouer — to pacify by indulging
  • German: jemandem seinen Willen lassen — to pacify by indulging
  • German: besänftigen — to pacify by indulging
  • Hungarian: kedvében jár — to pacify by indulging
  • Hungarian: kedvére tesz — to pacify by indulging
  • Hungarian: alkalmazkodik — to pacify by indulging
  • Irish: mol le — to pacify by indulging
  • Irish: ionramhái — to pacify by indulging
  • Italian: accontentare — to pacify by indulging
  • Italian: assecondare — to pacify by indulging
  • Latin: mōrigerō — to pacify by indulging
  • Russian: угожда́ть (ugoždátʹ) — to pacify by indulging
  • Russian: ублажа́ть (ublažátʹ) — to pacify by indulging
  • Spanish: seguir la corriente — to pacify by indulging
  • Spanish: hacer el favor — to pacify by indulging
  • Swedish: gå till mötes — to pacify by indulging
  • Swedish: foga sig — to pacify by indulging
  • Ukrainian: годи́ти (hodýty) — to pacify by indulging
  • Ukrainian: догоджа́ти (dohodžáty) — to pacify by indulging
  • Ukrainian: догоди́ти (dohodýty) — to pacify by indulging