Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Great merriment.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Demonstrative mirth or merriment; gleeful exhilaration; social gaiety; jollity.
- n. Synonyms Hilarity, Joy, Glee, Joviality; gaiety, exhilaration. Joy is not often used of the excitement or overflow of animal spirits, but is rather and almost distinctively an affection of the mind. Glee is a strong word for an acute or ecstatic pleasure that expresses itself in mirthfulness and other demonstrative signs of high spirits. Joviality is that feeling or character which, being itself gay, merry, or jolly, brings others into the same mood; the word is generally used in a good sense. Hilarity is more often, but not necessarily, used of mirth, laughter, or other signs of exhilaration exceeding the limits of reason or propriety. See animation, mirth, gladness, happiness.
Wiktionary
- n. A great amount of happiness, usually accompanied by laughter.
- n. Something that induces laughter.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Boisterous mirth; merriment; jollity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. great merriment
Etymologies
- Middle English hilarite, good spirits, from Old French, from Latin hilaritās, from hilaris, cheerful, from Greek hilaros.
Examples
“They stroll around New York, getting involved in all sorts of situations where 'hilarity' is sure to ensue.”
“I mean, when you feature a vampire with a very nervous divorcee named Bushy-Smallwood, well, the hilarity is sure to follow.”
“I gotta admit, whenever a conservative talks about being “hip” and/or “edgy,” hilarity is about to ensue.”
“In return, I was treated with enough respect to get me through, if we forget the incident at Point 6 when I was left alone with 20 pissed up protesters “by mistake” (for a few seconds) as the van revved up and pretended to drive off amid much hilarity from the team!”
“The real hilarity is the recent hint that Israel is now advertising itself as the new potential protector of “Sunnis” like the Saudis against the same Iran.”
Is McCain About to ‘Refine’ His Withdrawal Plan, Too? « Antiwar.com Blog
“Carnahan does, however, have an oddball sense of comic timing; what his picture lacks in hilarity it recuperates with a well-developed, albeit mumbling, sense of the absurd.”
“The hilarity is building, and finally, in a bid to move things back towards bedtime preparations, I grab up the socks, toss them at the laundry, and fling my still-giggling self back across my bed.”
“The hilarity is that you think Republicans have any idea how to secure the country when THE BIGGEST TERRORIST ATTACK IN U.S.”
Think Progress » Colbert to Kristol: “How Is The New American Century?”
“The hilarity is increased because I can picture you getting all hot and bothered by us libs, then responding to us and actually believing yourself, which is the funniest part.”
Think Progress » Year in Review: What’s Happened Since Bush’s Reelection
“On the one hand, this sucks and I will probably end up dressing the cat in doll clothes to fill my copious spare time; but on the other hand, journal hilarity is likely to ensue.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hilarity’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Funny Laughter Words
Words that speak humor
humor, laugh, funny, laughter, hilarity, guffaw, chortle, giggle, burst, hilarious, happy, chuckle and 66 more...
super-clarice Man to female date: So, basically, you sleep with people out of hilarity? May 20, 2009