laughter

Meaning

Noun

  • The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
  • A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the laughing face, particularly of the lips, and of the whole body, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs.
  • A reason for merriment.

Origin

  • From Middle English laughter, laghter, laȝter, from Old English hleahtor ("laughter, jubilation, derision"), from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz ("laughter"), from Proto-Indo-European *klek-, *kleg-. Cognate with German Gelächter ("laughter, hilarity, merriment"), Danish and Norwegian latter, Icelandic hlátur. More at laugh.

Modern English dictionary

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