Comedy
//ˈkɒmɪdi// noun
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 a choric song of celebration or revel, especially in Ancient Greece countable, historical
- 2 a comic incident or series of incidents wordnet
- 3 a light, amusing play with a happy ending countable
"A Midsummer Night's Dream is among Shakespeare's most famous comedies."
- 4 light and humorous drama with a happy ending wordnet
- 5 a narrative poem with an agreeable ending (e.g., The Divine Comedy) Europe, Medieval, countable
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- 6 a dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical in tone countable
- 7 the genre of such works countable, uncountable
- 8 entertainment composed of jokes, satire, or humorous performance uncountable
"Why would you be watching comedy when there are kids starving right now?"
- 9 the art of composing comedy countable, uncountable
- 10 a humorous event countable
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Tim is a huge fan of satirical comedy."
Etymology
From Middle English comedie, from Middle French comedie, from Latin cōmoedia, from Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + either ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”) or ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer, bard”), both from ἀείδω (aeídō, “to sing”). Doublet of commedia.
Related phrases
More for "comedy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.