laugh

Meanings

Noun

• An expression of mirth particular to the human species; the sound heard in laughing; laughter.
• Something that provokes mirth or scorn.
• A fun person.

Verb

• To show mirth, satisfaction, or derision, by peculiar movement of the muscles of the face, particularly of the mouth, causing a lighting up of the face and eyes, and usually accompanied by the emission of explosive or chuckling sounds from the chest and throat; to indulge in laughter.
• To be or appear cheerful, pleasant, mirthful, lively, or brilliant; to sparkle; to sport.
• To make an object of laughter or ridicule; to make fun of; to deride; to mock.
• To affect or influence by means of laughter or ridicule.
• To express by, or utter with, laughter.

Related

Similar words

• cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter, cachinnation
• joke, laughing stock
• cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, titter

Opposite words

• cry, weep

Origin

• From Middle English laughen, laghen, from (Anglian) Old English hlæhhan, hlehhan, (West Saxon) hliehhan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlahhjan, from Proto-Germanic *hlahjaną.
• Germanic: (with j-present) Scots lauch, Icelandic hlæja, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish le; (without) Low German lachen, Dutch lachen, German lachen.
• Indo-European: Russian клекота́ть, клокота́ть, клохта́ть ‘to cluck, cackle’, Ancient Greek κλώζω, κλώσσω ‘to cackle, clack’, Welsh cloch ‘bell’, possibly Latin glōcīre ‘to cluck’.