Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Relating to laughter or used in eliciting laughter.
- adj. Eliciting laughter; ludicrous.
- adj. Capable of laughing or inclined to laugh.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having the faculty or power of laughing.
- Laughable; capable of exciting laughter; ridiculous.
- Of or pertaining to laughter; exerted to produce laughter: as, the risible faculty.
- Same as risibilities. See risibility, 2.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or pertaining to laughter
- adj. Provoking laughter; ludicrous; ridiculous; humorously insignificant
- adj. of a person Easily laughing; prone to laughter
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having the faculty or power of laughing; disposed to laugh.
- adj. Exciting laughter; worthy to be laughed at; amusing.
- adj. Used in, or expressing, laughter.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. arousing or provoking laughter
Etymologies
- From French risible. from Late Latin rīsibilis, rīsus ("laughter") + -ibilis, from the perfect passive participle of rīdeō ("laugh"). (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin rīsibilis, from Latin rīsus, past participle of rīdēre, to laugh. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The only website representing Welsh Labour on the web that isn't entirely risible is the party's official website, which nevertheless can be criticised for its lack of imagination, innovation and provision for Welsh speakers in comparison to certain other party websites.”
“No surprise here; the BBC's agenda against Christianity has long been evident anyone recall the risible Bonekickers, among others?”
“(aka risible BNP singing "star" Joey Smith), who is standing for election in Dewsbury on Oct”
WN.com - Articles related to East Sudan parties concede defeat, cry fraud
“Good on Stringer for calling the anti-Casino line suggesting Manchestre hadn't been coming up withe other regeneration ideas 'risible'.”
“_I answer that, _ What belongs to one cannot be said of another, unless they are both the same; thus "risible" can be predicated only of man.”
Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition
“Brendan Gormley, chief executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee, said the claim that aid agencies had lost their humanitarianism ethos was "risible".”
“Many, many critics have written on the unconscious homoeroticism of Hopkins's poetry; my review referred to only one, Helen Vendler, and it was from Vendler that I borrowed the word "risible," which she uses in her discussion in The Breaking of Style (1995) of "The Bugler's First Communion"; in this poem, she observes, "metaphor takes on such unconscious sexual analogy that a psychoanalytic reading finds it almost risible (the bugler boy 'to all I teach/Yields ténder as a púshed péach').”
“Sarah, although my own disagreement with Dr. Seitz is evident in the thread above, I will say that your accusation that Dr. Seitz is acting in other than good faith is unfair (perhaps, to use his rejoinder to me - "risible"). orthodox dioceses in the US, and that is a commendable thing. orthodox need to deal with, and the sooner the better, is the co-ordination of ministry - or at least, not allowing our ministries to cancel each other.”
“Despite Elizabeth Crawford's irreplaceable scholarship and Sue Croft's creative work in theatre, they should not have the last word on Rebecca Lenkiewicz's remarkable play about the suffragettes, Her Naked Skin (politics, "risible" lesbian love (Crawford) and absence of working-class participation and real historical figures (Croft) are the principal criticisms.”
WN.com - Articles related to A century of distinction: 100 women who changed the world
“The idea that participating on a listserv counts, however, seems to me not just wrong but risible.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘risible’.
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
rya, rutilant, ruthful, rutherford, ruth, rusticity, rusticate, Russophobia, Russophile, russet, russel, rushlight and 514 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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select words
luminous, radiant, malicious, zeal, ojalá, voluptuary, rubbish, purlicue, consarnit, upstart, precis, robinsonade and 66 more...
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jeffrey.t.whitney's list
sartorial, sabbatarian, sagacious, desiccate, ersatz, insouciant, atavistic, luddite, crwth, obdurate, stentorian, ruminate and 51 more...
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Let's Talk About Family!
idiosyncrasy, acerbic, sardonic, mordant, aesthetics, prolific, discerning, eclectic, iconoclast, heterodox, disheveled, deplorable and 36 more...
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Kathy C's List
My favorite words
golconda, au fait, purlicue, tautonym, cunctatory, gynecomastia, vesta, imprimatur, efflux, antediluvian, protean, phlegmatic and 24 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Vega's Logophile Dictionary
Words I've heard/read in use, words being learnt, words that I want to eventually use in everyday language, words that are high-brow and elitist and scholarly and obscure, words that display the wo...
parsimonious, torpor, recalcitrant, plebeian, vitriol, gumption, augur, aestival, celerity, diaphanous, farrago, nonpareil and 287 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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Words I Should Use More Often
Words that I'll use to sound erudite.
fungible, aggrandizement, tete-a-tete, sententious, serendipitous, fortuitous, lugubrious, declivity, propitiatory, volubility, august, tenebrous and 214 more...
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Logodaedalus' Lexical Locutionary
Discombobulating the illiterate since the middle of the last century.
adiaphora, agitprop, alliteration, apophthegm, autarky, bête noire, bezoar, biorhythm, braggadocio, canaille, confabulate, confrère and 332 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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Naresh_Gre
The path meanders through the vineyards
meander, labyrinth, Sinuous, gyrate, caron, awry, credo, banter, juxtaposition, argot, inexorable, foibles and 223 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for risible.

sionnach "I think guys who take Cialis are risible", said Tom woodenly. Dec 12, 2007