adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Treating serious issues with (often deliberately) inappropriate humour; flippant.

   "Robbie's joke about Heather's appearance was just him being facetious."

2. 2
   Pleasantly humorous; jocular.
3. 3
   humorously silly or counterproductive for the purpose of sarcastically advocating the opposite.

Adjective

1. 1
   cleverly amusing in tone wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

atticbanteringbitingblithebrilliantclever

Example

More examples

"Are you accusing me of being facetious?"

Etymology

From French facétieux, from Latin facētia (“jest, wit, humor”), from facētus (“witty, jocose, facetious”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.