DictionaryAI

humour

UKHYOO-muh/ˈhjuː.mə(ɹ)/HYOO-mer/ˈhjuːmɚ/

Pluralhumours (some meanings)

Verbhumours, humouring, humoured

US spellinghumor

7 meanings of humour

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  1. 1
    funny sidenoununcountable
    The amusing or comic element in something, such as a story, a situation or a remark.

    The speech mixed serious points with a good deal of gentle humour.

    She saw the humour in the situation and burst out laughing.

    UsageThe adjective is humorous (not incorrect: humourous), but humourless keeps the u. People see the humour in something.

    Similarcomedy, comicality

    Note

    Wit and humour were once ranked against each other, and the difference still helps: wit is the quick, pointed remark, while humour is the broader comic quality that can sit in a situation or a story. An epitaph added to later editions of Goldsmith's Retaliation grants that a Scot may have humour, "I had almost said wit", as if wit were the higher praise.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  2. 2
    noununcountable
    Someone's capacity to notice what is comic in a situation and to get other people laughing.

    Even after the flood wrecked his shop, his humour had the neighbours laughing as they helped him clear up.

    With his dry sense of humour, our new manager can turn even a dull Monday meeting into something we look forward to.

    UsageMost often in a sense of humour: a great sense of humour, no sense of humour.

    Similarwit

  3. 3
    go along withverbtransitive
    To soothe or placate someone by going along with their wishes or whims.

    I didn't think the plan would work, but I humoured her and agreed to try it.

    Nurses often humour confused patients rather than argue with them.

    UsageAs a request, humour me asks someone to play along with an idea for a moment.

    Note

    Think of it as going along with someone's humour of the moment, the "whim" meaning turned into an action. It implies patience rather than agreement: the person doing the humouring goes along without being convinced.

  4. 4
    moodnouncountable
    A mood or passing state of mind, especially a bad one or one brought on by an event; also, a sudden, unreasoning whim.

    The long delay at the airport left the passengers in a foul humour.

    She paints when the humour takes her, sometimes all night and sometimes not for weeks.

    UsageMostly in set phrases: in a good humour, in a foul humour, out of humour, when the humour takes someone.

    Similarmood

    Note

    Older writing uses it for a settled temperament as well as a passing mood: Francis Bacon calls King James a prince of a marvellous pleasant humour. The link is the body's four humours, once believed to govern mood.

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    body fluidnounarchaichistoricalcountable
    Any fluid of an animal's body, especially one of the four (blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm) once thought to govern health and mood.

    The surgeon drained the swelling, convinced that it was full of a corrupt humour.

    For some days a fistula lacrymalis had come into my left eye, which discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger.
    1763, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisisana (PG)
    Note

    Medicine built a theory of character on these fluids, and its vocabulary outlived it: too much blood made a person sanguine, too much phlegm phlegmatic, too much yellow bile choleric, and too much black bile melancholic. Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy defines a humour as a liquid or fluent part of the body, there for its preservation.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Historical medicine explained temperament through the predominance of bodily humours. nlm.nih.gov
    • An abundance of blood was associated with a sanguine temperament, and an abundance of black bile with a melancholic temperament. nottingham.ac.uk
    • Yellow bile was associated with the choleric temperament, and phlegm with the phlegmatic temperament. en.wikipedia.org
    • Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy defines a humour as a liquid or fluent bodily part serving the body's preservation. gutenberg.org
  2. 6
    eye fluidnouncountable or uncountable
    Either of the two fluids that fill the interior of the eyeball, named the aqueous humour and the vitreous humour.

    Glaucoma can develop when the aqueous humour cannot drain properly and pressure builds up in the eye.

    In a vitrectomy, the surgeon removes the vitreous humour and replaces it with a saline solution or a gas bubble.

    Note

    In anatomy the word usually comes with its qualifier. The aqueous humour is a thin, watery fluid in front of the lens that is constantly produced and drained, and it keeps the pressure inside the eye steady. The vitreous humour is a clear jelly filling the larger space behind the lens, and it helps the eyeball hold its shape.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  3. 7
    nounobsolete
    Dampness, or water suspended in the air as a moist vapour.

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Origin

The word passed into Middle English as humour from Old French humor or humour. Its source is Latin hūmor, more correctly ūmor (“liquid”), which comes from ūmeō (“to be moist”); the h crept in because people wrongly connected the word with humus (“soil”). The meaning moved from “liquid” to “mood” because of classical physiology, which held that four bodily humours (fluids) governed behaviour. From “mood” came a verb use, “to give in to someone's mood or whim”, and a later narrowing gave the sense “wit”.