funny
/ˈfʌni
/adjective (funnier, funniest)
1Causing laughter or amusement; humorous: a funny story the play is hilariously funny...
- We have people that laugh, and so they call and tell us their funny, humorous stories.
- He was caring and he could keep you entertained with his funny stories and wonderful sense of fun.
- His witty introductions, funny stories and anecdotes kept the crowds smiling throughout.
Synonyms
amusing, humorous, comic, comical, droll, laughable, chucklesome;
hilarious, hysterical, riotous, uproarious;
witty, quick-witted, waggish, facetious, jolly, jocular, light-hearted;
entertaining, diverting, sparkling, scintillating;
silly, absurd, ridiculous, ludicrous, risible, farcical, preposterous, slapstick
informal side-splitting, rib-tickling, laugh-a-minute, wacky, zany, off the wall, daft, killing, a scream, rich, priceless
1.1 [predicative, with negative] informal Used to emphasize that something is unpleasant or wrong and should be regarded seriously or avoided: stealing other people’s work isn’t funny...
- A Royal Mail spokesman insists that this is a serious problem and not funny at all.
2Difficult to explain or understand; strange or curious: I had a funny feeling you’d be around...
- ‘It's a funny thing, this business,’ he explains with a self-conscious grin.
- It's kind of hard to tell though, and the funny thing about exams is, the moment you come out of the room you just don't care about them any more.
- Power is a funny thing, and it's dangerous to confuse it with other things, like celebrity.
2.1Unusual, especially in such a way as to arouse suspicion: there was something funny going on...
- Suspicion crept into my mind and I had a funny feeling that she knew I didn't go to the movies.
Synonyms
strange, peculiar, odd, queer, weird, bizarre, curious, freakish, freak, quirky;
mysterious, mystifying, puzzling, perplexing;
unusual, uncommon, anomalous, irregular, abnormal, exceptional, singular, rare, unique, out of the ordinary, extraordinary, outlandish;
British out of the common;
Scottish unco
British informal, dated rum
suspicious, suspect, dubious, untrustworthy, questionable
informal shady, fishy, not kosher
British informal dodgy
Australian/New Zealand shonky
2.2 informal (Of a person or part of the body) not in wholly good health or order; slightly ill: my eyes go all funny after a bit
2.3British informal Slightly deranged or eccentric: I heard she’d gone a bit funny...
- It seems that corporations would want good problem-solvers, even if they were eccentric and dressed funny.
- I feel like my life is surrounded by people who are totally deranged and totally funny.
noun
1 (funnies) informal Amusing jokes: the training courses usually produced a good crop of funnies...
- Hot off the email funnies comes possibly the best chicken joke ever?
- The best and worst of our exceedingly odd times are reflected in the end-of-the-year funnies, with grumpiness, cross-dressing, political rage and celebrity obsession emerging as dominant themes.
- Frances, songwriter and head honcho, cracks the funnies, at her own expense as well as her colleagues.
1.1North American The comic strips in newspapers: I read the sports page, funnies, and editorial...
- It was wrapped very badly in the Sunday funnies in the newspaper.
- I remember the hallway where I ducked in had newspaper funnies stuck up on the doorways.
- I gravitated to comics really early on, like the funnies in the newspaper like Blondie, Beetle Bailey and Nancy.
Phrases
funny ha-ha (or funny peculiar)
I'm not being funny, but ——
see the funny side (of something)
(oh) very funny!
Derivatives
funniness
/ noun ...- As in previous research, only moderate correlations were found between laughter and self-report measures of perceived funniness, happiness, amusement, and anxiousness.
- But luckily, because we rehearsed it for five solid days before we performed it for an audience, we got used to the funniness of it and were able to keep a straight face.
- Maybe that's the point and it's supposed to be part of the funniness, or maybe there's some little detail from near the beginning that you're supposed to have memorised, but for me it spoiled an otherwise cracking good book.