Laughter vs. Humour — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Laughter and Humour
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Compare with Definitions
Laughter
Laughter is a physical reaction consisting usually of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli.
Humour
Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: humor, "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion.
Laughter
The action or sound of laughing
He roared with laughter
Humour
The quality of being amusing or comic, especially as expressed in literature or speech
His tales are full of humour
Laughter
The act of laughing.
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Humour
A mood or state of mind
Her good humour vanished
The clash hadn't improved his humour
Laughter
The sound produced by laughing.
Humour
Each of the four chief fluids of the body (blood, phlegm, yellow bile (choler), and black bile (melancholy)) that were thought to determine a person's physical and mental qualities by the relative proportions in which they were present.
Laughter
(Archaic) A cause or subject for laughter.
Humour
Comply with the wishes of (someone) in order to keep them content, however unreasonable such wishes might be
She was always humouring him to prevent trouble
Laughter
The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
Their loud laughter betrayed their presence.
Humour
Variant of humor.
Laughter
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.
Humour
(uncountable) The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
She has a great sense of humour, and I always laugh a lot whenever we get together.
The sensitive subject was treated with humour, but in such way that no one was offended.
Laughter
(archaic) A reason for merriment.
Humour
(uncountable) A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
He was in a particularly vile humour that afternoon.
Laughter
The sound of laughing
Humour
Any of the fluids in an animal body, especially the four "cardinal humours" of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body.
Laughter
The activity of laughing; the manifestation of joy or mirth of scorn;
He enjoyed the laughter of the crowd
Humour
(medicine) Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
Humour
(obsolete) Moist vapour, moisture.
Humour
(transitive) To pacify by indulging.
I know you don't believe my story, but humour me for a minute and imagine it to be true.
Humour
Same as humor.
Humour
A characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling;
Whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time
He was in a bad humor
Humour
A message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter
Humour
(Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state;
The humors are blood and phlegm and yellow and black bile
Humour
The liquid parts of the body
Humour
The quality of being funny;
I fail to see the humor in it
Humour
The trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous;
She didn't appreciate my humor
You can't survive in the army without a sense of humor
Humour
Put into a good mood
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