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. uncountable A great amount of amusement, usually accompanied by laughter.
- n. countable Something that induces laughter.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Boisterous mirth; merriment; jollity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. great merriment
Etymologies
- From Latin hilaritas, "cheerfulness", from adjective hilaris, "cheerful", ultimately from Greek, + noun of state suffix -tas. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English hilarite, good spirits, from Old French, from Latin hilaritās, from hilaris, cheerful, from Greek hilaros. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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’.
-
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 4087 more...
-
Funny Laughter Words
Words that speak humor
humor, laugh, funny, laughter, hilarity, guffaw, chortle, giggle, burst, hilarious, happy, chuckle and 66 more...
-
Happy, happy, joy, joy.
Feel good words.
great pleasure, joyfulness, jubilation, triumph, exultation, rejoicing, happiness, gladness, exhilaration, exuberance, bliss, felicity and 95 more...
-
dharma66's list
words that pique my interest either by meaning, pronunciation, or spelling, and words that otherwise tickle my fancy!!
pique, elusive, serendipity, nefarious, redundant, pseudoscientific, obsequious, flack, quandary, impervious, perchance, translucent and 168 more...
-
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
summerwing's Words
proctosigmoidoscopy, horrendous, cichlid, implode, nostalgic, firmament, elucidate, quintet, rhombus, mack, pithy, rambunctious and 304 more...
-
eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
-
pixistix's Words
cumquat, circumlocution, panoply, propinquity, contumely, quietus, fardel, tmesis, tipsy, giddy, trudge, vortex and 211 more...
-
My Words
Words that I use regularly and consider mine.
zen, poser, savvy, angst, flustered, bitter, whatsoever, farfetched, indeed, scenario, inevitable, salvage and 134 more...
-
kmalladi's favorites
edification, penchant, ablution, extricate, frank, triumvirate, trifecta, egregious, hoi polloi, articulate, antediluvian, brusque and 291 more...
-
stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
-
SAT Words Appearing More Than Once on...
A list of 166 words that have appeared more than once on official SAT exams. Based on Gruber's SAT Word Master list.
abolish, ameliorate, ambulatory, ambivalent, acquiesce, affirmation, atrophy, anchor, amity, amass, accent, abridge and 154 more...
-
favorite words
ennui, bonhomie, eschew, liaison, serendipity, lovely, dusk, kitten, epitome, sexy, beloved, darling and 396 more...
-
likaluca's Words
recursive, genuflect, libidinous, emote, smote, importune, trill, chillax, overshare, shorn, needle, ego and 162 more...
-
wordsmithing part deux
because wordsmith is not a verb.
enmity, incarnate, chignon, nape, solitude, nocturne, decorum, warren, svelte, interstice, serene, charlotte and 488 more...
-
ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hilarity.
super-clarice Man to female date: So, basically, you sleep with people out of hilarity? May 20, 2009