Laughter

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈlɑːftÉ™/
• US enPR: lăfʹtÉ™r, IPA: /ˈlæftÉš/
• Rhymes: -ɑːftÉ™(r)

Alternative forms

• laughtre obsolete

Origin

From Middle English, from Old English hleahtor ("laughter, jubilation, derision"), from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz ("laughter"), from Proto-Indo-European *klek-, *kleg- ("to shout"). Cognate with German Gelächter ("laughter, hilarity, merriment"), Danish and Norwegian latter ("laughter"), Icelandic hlátur ("laughter"). More at laugh.

Noun

1. The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
   Their loud laughter betrayed their presence.
• 1899, Stephen Crane, s:Twelve O'Clock Chapter 1, There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town.
2. A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the laughing face, particularly of the lips, and of the whole body, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs.
• Thomas Browne (1605-1682)The act of laughter, which is a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter.
3. (archaic) A reason for merriment.

Related terms

• laugh