Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure.
- n. Enjoyment; amusement: have fun at the beach.
- n. Playful, often noisy, activity.
- v. Informal To behave playfully; joke.
- adj. Informal Enjoyable; amusing: "You're a real fun guy” ( Margaret Truman).
- idiom. for As a joke; playfully.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Mirthful sport; frolicsome amusement; enjoyment from gay or comical action or speech.
- n. Mirthful wit or humor; sportive gaiety of speech or manner; drollery; whimsicality.
- To make fun; jest; joke: as, I was only funning.
Wiktionary
- adj. informal enjoyable, amusing.
- adj. informal whimsical, flamboyant
- n. amusement, enjoyment or pleasure.
- n. playful, often noisy, activity.
- v. colloquial To tease, kid, poke fun at.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Sport; merriment; frolicsome amusement.
WordNet 3.0
- n. verbal wit or mockery (often at another's expense but not to be taken seriously)
- n. violent and excited activity
- n. a disposition to find (or make) causes for amusement
- n. activities that are enjoyable or amusing
Etymologies
- From Middle English fon, fonne ("foolish, simple, silly"), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish fånig ("foolish"), Swedish fåne ("a fool"). Compare also Norwegian fomme, fume ("a fool"). More at fon. (Wiktionary)
- Possibly from fon, to make a fool of, from Middle English fonnen, to fool, possibly from fonne, fool. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“[I use the term fun as a paradigmatic construct as defined by Erving Durkheim, Emile Goffman and Charles Bronson which means, in theoretic terms, the whole enchilada.]”
“Trying to use the term fun to mean only pattern-learning when most people also use it to mean kinesthetic and other sensation-dependent enjoyment is just going to confuse people.”
“He gave what he called "fun facts" about the four generations of cellar masters who have harvested the product.”
The Wall Street Journal: A Luxury 'Experience' With Louis XIII
“An organization called Citizens for the Preservation of Bay2Breakers is also fighting to keep what they call the "fun police" from ending their carnival.”
The Wall Street Journal: San Francisco's New Race Rules: Run Naked, Not Drunk
“When iconic characters pass on their mantle, a big part of the fun is the redesign.”
“Serkong Rinpoche's comment to me in Tibetan about this whole event was, "This is what they call fun?”
Introduction to Buddhist Sexual Ethics: Having Sex with Someone Else's Partner
“The new looks for Misty and Colleen are part of what makes this title fun, with Misty channeling Foxxy Cleopatra and Colleen doing the all-white ‘Kill Bill’ riff.”
Heroes For Hire #9 | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News
“After that, there are two more, which they call fun options.”
“No, all the growth and the opportunity and the fun is at the leading edge, at the place where change happens.”
“The Super Bowl may be in Detroit, but the fun is across the river in Windsor.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fun’.
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EN - 3-letter words of the pattern CVC
With the exception of abbreviations and mosaic words all types of words (proper names, past tense of verbs, etc.) are allowed.
for, was, not, his, but, has, had, can, her, him, new, now and 339 more...
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Describing People
eye, hair, mouth, nose, tooth, head, face, arm, hand, finger, lip, leg and 212 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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no. 2
lethargic, draining, bane of one's life, hectic, mission, downer, annoying, a pain in the pro..., proverbial, stressful, not ideal, debilitating and 20 more...
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cycling terms
peleton, drafting, eschelon, bonk, battaglin, road rash, Tour de France, attack, blocking, breakaway, derailleur, drop and 51 more...
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Pseudo-edge
The middle-aged corporate marketer's version of a teen lexicon.
ultimate, extreme, chillin, totally, bling, karma, stoke, smooth, flav, punch, ish, hype and 46 more...
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ROT13 Pairs
Nabbed from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROT-13#Letter_games_and_net_culture: words that become other existing words (or failing that, acronyms) when a Caesar shift of 13 places is applied to them.
aha, nun, ant, nag, balk, onyx, bar, one, barf, ones, be, or and 64 more...
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adamogiovane's Words
older woman, younger man, age gap relationship, non-fiction, sensuality, relationship, life, sex, love, hugs, kisses, breast and 147 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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3LW
3 letter words, not the girl band.
boggle and speed scrabble would not be half as fun without them.aah, boa, dot, fun, ick, log, oca, pyx, sos, was, aal, bob and 342 more...
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Beknownst1981's list
I love words, especially the ones I make up with my friends.
translucent meat ..., beknownst (knew), plethora, curmudgeon, wanderlust, actually, differentiate, bearded, hobbit feet, female, sexy time, librarian and 220 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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NTB
chaos, Sagittarius, aether, magic, jester, fool, random, delirium, fire, life, cosmic, riddle and 120 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fun.
albertoprb low intensity Oct 12, 2012
yarb "Now, I was sure Richard was funning me when he told me I was nice. He talks so much of my hair that I was afraid he thought little of the rest of me. I'm sure he told you that I'm plain. And I am. Am I not?"
- Rebecca West, The Judge Jul 29, 2009
yarb I disagree with Asativum! Fun, fun, fun, thud, thud thud. This word is not at all fun, it's an unomatopoeia. Apr 11, 2009
tbtabby F is for Friends who do stuff together
U is for You and me
N is for Anywhere, anytime at all
Down here in the deep blue sea
-Spongebob Squarepants Dec 19, 2008
asativum I'm surprised no one has commented on just how odd this word is. Say it a few times: fun, fun, fun! Cheers one up and all, yes; fun, yes; but odd. Jan 26, 2008