DictionaryAI

humour

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

Pluralhumours (some meanings)

Verbhumours, humouring, humoured

US spellinghumor

7 meanings of humour

Practice

  1. 1
    funny sidenoununcountable
    The quality that makes something or someone funny.

    The book is full of humour, and I laughed all the way through it.

    The film is sad, but it has some lovely moments of humour.

    UsageSpell it humorous (not incorrect: humourous), but humourless.

    Similarcomedy, comicality

    Note
  2. 2
    noununcountable
    A person's skill at finding things funny and making others laugh.

    Grandad never lost his humour, even when he was ill, and he still made us all laugh.

    Our new teacher's humour makes even maths lessons fun.

    UsageOften a sense of humour: a good sense of humour.

    Similarwit

  3. 3
    go along withverbtransitive
    To keep someone happy or calm by doing what they want.

    Just humour him and say you like his song.

    Grandad wanted to tell his old army stories again, so we humoured him and listened.

    UsagePeople say humour me to ask you to go along with their idea.

    Note
  4. 4
    moodnouncountable
    How someone feels for a short time, often in a bad way, or a sudden wish to do something without good reason.

    Dad was in a bad humour all morning because the car wouldn't start.

    Once the rain stopped, the whole team was in a much better humour.

    UsageOften in a good humour or in a bad humour.

    Similarmood

    Note

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    body fluidnounarchaichistoricalcountable
    One of the liquids in a body, especially the four that people once believed controlled health and mood.

    People once believed that phlegm was a humour that made you calm and slow.

    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
  2. 6
    eye fluidnouncountable or uncountable
    One of the two clear fluids inside the eyeball, one watery and the other like jelly.

    The vitreous humour is a clear jelly that fills most of the eye.

    The eye keeps making fresh aqueous humour and draining the old away.

    Note
  3. 7
    nounobsolete
    Wetness, or water hanging in the air as a damp mist.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of humour apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

It comes from a Latin word meaning “liquid”. People once believed four liquids in the body, called humours, controlled a person's mood, and from “mood” the word later came to mean being funny.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts