Risible
adj ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Of or pertaining to laughter
"the risible muscles"
- 2 Provoking laughter; ludicrous; ridiculous; humorously insignificant
""[…] I hope you find nothing risible in my complaisance?" replied his companion, something jealously."
- 3 Easily laughing; prone to laughter
"We are got indeed into a merry world, Laughing is our main buſiniſs; as if becauſe it has bin made part of the Definition of man, that he his Riſible, his man-hood conſiſted in nothing elſe."
- 1 arousing or provoking laughter wordnet
Example
More examples"A joke merely affected her with silent convulsive twitchings, as though the risible faculties struggled somewhere within her but could not bring the laugh to birth."
Etymology
From Middle French risible and directly from Late Latin rīsibilis, from Latin rīsus (“laughter”) + -ibilis, from the perfect passive participle of rīdeō (“laugh”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.