Word.ws English Dictionary

funny

/ˈfʌni/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ˈfʊni/

funny adjective: amusing; humorous; comical.

Adjective

funny (comparative funnier, superlative funniest)

  1. Amusing; humorous; comical.
    • I know you'll enjoy chatting with her — she's really funny and smart.
    • She's full of funny stories.
  2. (figuratively) Strange or unusual, often in an unpleasant way.
    • The milk smelt funny so I poured it away.
    • I've got a funny feeling that this isn't going to work.
    Synonyms:
    aberrant, abnormal, alien, anomalous, as queer as Dick's hatband, bizarre, booky, curious, deviant, discrepant
  3. (Ireland, UK, informal) Showing unexpected resentment.
    • Near-synonyms: touchy, tetchy
    • Don't mention it to her — she's funny about it.
    Synonyms:
    touchy, tetchy
  4. (Jamaica, derogatory, offensive) Homosexual: gay.
    • Funny man ah get drop like a bad habit.2005, Damian Marley, “Welcome to Jamrock”, in Welcome to Jamrock (album title)
    Synonyms:
    queer

Noun (1)

funny (plural funnies)

  1. (informal) A joke.
    • After church I am met by a dear parishioner who says, "Got a funny for you. Father." Now I'll have "funnies," so I can reply. "Got one for you too, Mary!"1996, The Living Church - Volume 212, page 20
    • Everyone would be sitting on big fluffy white clouds singing songs, telling funnies and just enjoying the day.2014, Brian Conaghan, When Mr. Dog Bites, page 54
  2. (informal) A comic strip.
    • Chic Young, who created his funny funny, “Blondie,” in 1930, and kept it the most popular comic strip in the world right through the unfunny generation, was quick to see the difference between the innocent funnies and the new generation of comics that started after the Second World War:1974, The New York Times Magazine, page cliv
    • The artist gave priority to “Mark Trail,” usually spending at least eight hours a day on it, then working at night on “The Ryatts,” a funny that featured the foibles of a family much like his own, which included four children.2014 March 9, Johnny Vardeman, “Drawn into history: Gainesville cartoonist to continue legacy of Mark Trail comic”, in Gainesville Times
  3. (Internet, ironic) Humor in general.
    • Where's the funny? Your meme sucks.
    • Finally, the funny.

Adverb

funny (comparative funnier, superlative funniest)

  1. (nonstandard) In an unusual manner; strangely.
    • She was breathing funny now.1970, Troy Conway, The Cunning Linguist, London: Flamingo Books, page 41
    • At this the farmer gets to breathing funnier, hiccuping, little stray burps roll out—uncontrolled, we’re talking here.1989 fall, Allan Gurganus, “A Hog Loves Its Life”, in Gordon Lish, editor, The Quarterly, number 11, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 118
    Synonyms:
    funnily
  2. (Jamaica, derogatory, offensive) In a manner seen as being typical of a homosexual, or indicating homosexuality.
    • Dem nuh waan nuh honey, dem only waan di money. Dat’s how me know seh dem bwoy deh all a move funny.2002, Sean Paul, “Like Glue”, in Dutty Rock (album title)
    • He walked away, pushing the napkin in his pink pants pockets. By the way, he dresses and walks funnier out of school. He likes tight feminine colored clothes and walks like he is holding a stick between his butt cheeks. You probably wouldn’t notice him if you didn't hear his voice and looked him in...2017, Christina Williams, “The Bullied Girl In the Mall”, in Scribble: A Novel, →ISBN, page 221

Noun (2)

funny (plural funnies)

  1. (Ireland, UK, dated) A narrow, clinker-built double-ender for sculling.
    • I myself recollect the funnies at Eton, which were certain little boats, capable of containing one person only, who, like an Indian in his canoe, was constantly obliged to balance himself, with such critical nicety, that the least mistake was certain of producing a ducking.1810, Letters from a Nobleman to His Son, During the Period of His Education at Eton and Oxford, volume 1, pages 63–64
    • As I do not belong to the boat-club, I always row by myself in a funny […] or at least go in a two-oared boat, with some friend with whom I should otherwise be walking.1841 December 12, William Thomson, “[Letter to father]”, in Silvanus P. Thompson, The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs, volume 1, published 1910, page 33

funny meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

funny in Hindi

amusing; comical
मज़ाक़िया mazāqiyā
strange; unusual
अजीब ajīb, अनोखा anokhā

funny in Tamil

வேடிக்கையான

funny in Marathi

amusing; comical
विनोदी vinodī

funny in Urdu

مزاحیہ
More languagesFewer languages
funny in Bengali
মজার môjar
funny in Telugu
తమాషా, ఫన్నీ
funny in Malayalam
ഹാസകരമായ, ഹാസജനകമായ, ഹാസ്യകരമായ, ഹാസ്യരസോദ്ദീപകമായ
funny in Kannada
ತಮಾಷೆ, ತಮಾಷೆಯ
funny in Punjabi
ਮਜ਼ਾਕੀਆ
funny in Gujarati
રમૂજી, રમુજી
funny in Odia
ହାସ୍ଯ଼ାସ୍ପଦ
funny in Sanskrit
हास्य hāsya
funny in Nepali
हाँसोउठ्दो hā̃souṭhdo, हाँसोलाग्दो hā̃solāgdo
funny in Arabic
مُضْحِك muḍḥik, هَزْلِيّ hazliyy
funny in Malay
kelakar, pelik
funny in Indonesian
lucu, aneh
funny in Persian
مسخره masxare, مضحک mozhek, خندهدار xande-dâr, کمیک komik
funny in Thai
ตลก dtà-lòk
funny in Vietnamese
buồn cười, ngồ ngộ, khôi hài, là lạ

Examples of funny in a sentence

  • It's funny how life goes sometimes.
  • I did it for the funny.
  • Oh it's a funny time of year / There'll be no blossom on the trees2002, “Funny Time Of Year”, in Out of Season, performed by Beth Gibbons ft. Rustin Man:
  • Ash would have been happy to sit and stare at Viv all day, but when he saw the other guys staring at his sister, too, he got funny about it.2012, Jade Varden, The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2):

All 40 example sentences with funny

Synonyms of funny

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of funny

Forms of funny

Adjective
comparativefunnier
superlativefunniest
Noun
pluralfunnies
Adverb
comparativefunnier
superlativefunniest

Origin of funny

From fun + -y.

Perhaps a jocular use of funny. See above.

Words formed from funny

Phrases with funny

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with funny

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about funny

What does funny mean?
Funny means amusing; humorous; comical.
What is funny in Hindi?
Funny in Hindi is मज़ाक़िया (mazāqiyā), अजीब (ajīb), अनोखा (anokhā). See Funny meaning in Hindi.
How do you use funny in a sentence?
It's funny how life goes sometimes.
What part of speech is funny?
Funny can be an adjective, a noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce funny?
Funny is pronounced /ˈfʌni/ (UK).

Words near funny in the dictionary

  1. funning up
  2. Funningsfjørður
  3. Funningur
  4. funnish
  5. funnisome
  6. funny
  7. funny accounting
  8. funny animal
  9. funny animals
  10. funny as a barrel of monkeys
  11. funny as a dose of the clap

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: funny (page history and authors); funny (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); funny (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); মজার (Bengali) (page history and authors); funny (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); funny (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); funny (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); funny (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); funny (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); funny (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-funny.wav, en-us-funny.ogg.

Cite this entry: “funny.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/funny. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.