humour

Syllables: hu·mourUK/ˈhjuː.mə(ɹ)//ˈhjuːmɚ/

humour noun: the quality of being amusing, comical, funny.

Noun

humour (usually uncountable, plural humours)

(UK, usually) The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
- 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.
Synonyms:

amusingness, comedy, comicality, wit, witticism
(UK, usually) A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
- He was in a particularly vile humour that afternoon.
- I like not the humour of lying.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
Synonyms:

mood
(UK, archaic, historical, usually) 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.
- A humour is a liquid or fluent part of the body, comprehended in it, for the preservation of it; and is either innate or born with us, or adventitious and acquisite.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC
- The cause is a temperate conglutination ; for both bodies are clammy and viscous , and do bridle the deflux of humours to the hurts , without penning them in too much1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for...
Synonyms:

bodily fluid
(UK, usually) Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
(UK, obsolete, usually) Moist vapour, moisture.

Verb

humour (third-person singular simple present humours, present participle humouring, simple past and past participle humoured)

(UK, transitive) To pacify by indulging.
- I know you don't believe my story, but humour me for a minute and imagine it to be true.

humour meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

humour in Hindi

humour, prank, joke: हँसी-मज़ाक़ hãsī-mazāq
to humour: फुसलाना phuslānā

humour in Urdu

مزاح, مذاق, مزاج, ٹھٹھول, ظرافت, پھسلانا

humour in Bengali

হাস্যরস

More languagesFewer languages

humour in Telugu: హాస్యం hāsyaṁ
humour in Malayalam: നർമ്മം naṟmmaṁ, ഹാസ്യം hāsyaṁ, തമാശ tamāśa
humour in Kannada: ವಿನೋದ, ಹಾಸ್ಯ, ತಮಾಷೆ, ವಿನೋದಪ್ರವೃತ್ತಿ
humour in Punjabi: ਹਾਸੇ-ਮਜ਼ਾਕ
humour in Odia: ହାସ୍ଯ଼ରସ
humour in Tagalog: balantong
humour in Arabic: فُكَاهَة fukāha, دُعَابَة duʕāba, مِزَاج mizāj, خِلْط ḵilṭ
humour in Indonesian: humor, kelakar
humour in Persian: شوخی šuxi, گش gaš
humour in Vietnamese: sự hài hước
humour in Myanmar: ဟာသ hasa.

Examples of humour in a sentence

So"—with a reassuring laugh—"here I am." A mild amusement at the possible humours of the situation characterised his manner.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
Merry VVhitefoord, farevvel! for thy ſake I admit / That a Scot may have humour, I had almoſt ſaid vvit: […]1774, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “Postscript”, in Retaliation: A Poem. […], 5th edition, London: […] G[eorge] Kearsly, […], →OCLC, page 22:
A great deal of excellent humour was expended on the perplexities of mine host.1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry]...
The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits.1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co....

All 40 example sentences with humour

Synonyms of humour

All synonyms of humour

Forms of humour

Noun
plural	humours
alternative US	humor
Verb
third-person singular present	humours
present participle	humouring
past participle	humoured
past	humoured

Plural of humour: humours

Origin of humour

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".

Words formed from humour

Phrases with humour

senses of humour

Words that rhyme with humour

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about humour

What does humour mean?: Humour means the quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
What is humour in Hindi?: Humour in Hindi is हँसी-मज़ाक़ (hãsī-mazāq), फुसलाना (phuslānā). See Humour meaning in Hindi.
How do you use humour in a sentence?: So"—with a reassuring laugh—"here I am." A mild amusement at the possible humours of the situation characterised his manner.
What part of speech is humour?: Humour can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce humour?: Humour is pronounced /ˈhjuː.mə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of humour?: The plural of humour is humours.

Words near humour in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: humour (page history and authors); फुसलाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); humour (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); humour (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); humour (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); humour (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); humour (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); humour (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-humor.ogg.

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