laughter
English
Alternative forms
- laughtre (obsolete)
Etymology
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.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA: /ˈlɑːftə/, X-SAMPA: /"lA:ft@/
- (US) enPR: lăfʹtər, IPA: /ˈlæftɚ/, X-SAMPA: /"l{ft@`/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːftə(r)
Noun
Wikipedia laughter (usually uncountable; plural laughters)
- The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
- Their loud laughter betrayed their presence
- 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.
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- 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. - Sir Thomas Browne
- Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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- (archaic) A reason for merriment
Related terms
Translations
sound (as) of laughing
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movement of the muscles of the laughing face
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