DictionaryAI

humorous

adjective
HYOO-mur-uhs/ˈhjuːməɹəs/

4 meanings of humorous

Practice

  1. 1
    adjective
    Full of humor or tending to provoke laughter; funny.

    The speaker opened with a humorous anecdote about getting lost in his own office building.

    Her essays take a humorous look at the everyday frustrations of parenting.

    Similarfunny, amusing, comic, witty, comical

    Oppositeserious, solemn, grave

  2. 2
    adjective
    Showing humor; given to wit and joking; jocular.

    He kept a humorous tone through the negotiations, which eased the tension in the room.

    The columnist stays humorous even when writing about grim subjects.

    Similarwitty, jocular, playful, lighthearted, jokey

    Oppositeserious, earnest, solemn, dour

  3. 3
    adjectiveobsolete
    Damp or watery; laden with moisture.
    Note

    Here humor is a substance rather than a joke. The word is simply humor plus -ous, so something humorous in this sense is full of moisture, like sodden ground or walls that never dry. The meaning has dropped out of use, and a modern reader will hear the "funny" meaning first. Any deliberate revival needs context that makes the wetness unmistakable.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    adjectiveobsolete
    Dependent on or driven by one's mood or whim; capricious, whimsical.
    [S]uch is now the Duke's condition That he misconstrues all that you have done. The Duke is humorous; what he is, indeed, More suits you to conceive than I to speak of.
    c. 1598, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”
    Note

    Here humor still means a passing mood, not a joke. Built from humor + -ous, the word once described anyone ruled by temper. When Shakespeare writes "The Duke is humorous" in As You Like It, the line is a warning about danger, not wit. Elizabeth Gaskell still uses it in The Grey Woman (1861). A modern reader would take it as the "funny" meaning, so keep it for reading older texts rather than for writing new ones.

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Origin

From Middle English humorous (compare Medieval Latin hūmorōsus), equivalent to humor plus the suffix -ous.