funny
1 Americanadjective
-
providing fun; causing amusement or laughter; amusing; comical.
a funny remark;
a funny person.
-
attempting to amuse; facetious.
Did you really mean that or were you just being funny?
-
warranting suspicion; deceitful; underhanded.
We thought there was something funny about those extra charges.
-
Informal. insolent; impertinent.
Don't get funny with me, young man!
-
curious; strange; peculiar; odd.
Her speech has a funny twang.
noun
-
Informal. a funny remark or story; a joke.
to make a funny.
-
funnies,
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Also called funny paper. the section of a newspaper reserved for comic strips, word games, etc.
noun
adjective
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causing amusement or laughter; humorous; comical
-
peculiar; odd
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suspicious or dubious (esp in the phrase funny business )
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informal faint or ill
to feel funny
noun
Usage
What is a basic definition of funny? Funny describes something that causes fun, especially laughter. Funny can describe someone who is trying to amuse others. It can also describe someone or something that is suspicious or odd. Funny has a few other senses as an adjective and a noun. Funny describes something that is amusing and causes people to laugh. Something that amuses people without causing laughter is usually said to be fun rather than funny. For example, a roller coaster would be called fun, while a knock-knock joke would be called funny. If something is not funny, it is unfunny. Real-life examples: Many people consider clowns, jokes, comedies, pranks, and Internet memes to be funny. These things cause most people to laugh. Used in a sentence: The comedian knew a lot of funny jokes. Funny also describes someone who is trying to get others to laugh or is trying to amuse them. This sense of funny is a synonym of facetious. Used in a sentence: Joan took the comment as an insult even though Luke was just trying to be funny. Funny also describes someone or something that is suspicious or underhanded. You might use this sense when you think something dishonest is going on. The phrase funny business is used in this sense to refer to criminal or unethical activity. Real-life examples: Rigged carnival games, overly friendly salespeople, and deals that seem too good to be true often cause people to think something funny is going on. Used in a sentence: We think something funny is going on at that store on the corner that is never open. Funny can also describe something that is strange, odd, or curious. Real-life examples: If your leg falls asleep, you will probably walk funny. Two tomatoes that grow together to make one tomato might have a funny shape. Used in a sentence: I think the speakers might be broken because the music sounds funny.
Synonym Usage
Funny, laughable, ludicrous refer to that which excites laughter. Funny and laughable are both applied to that which provokes laughter or deserves to be laughed at; funny is a colloquial term loosely applied and in popular use is commonly interchangeable with the other terms: a funny story, scene, joke; a laughable incident, mistake. That which is ludicrous excites laughter by its incongruity and foolish absurdity: The monkey's attempts to imitate the woman were ludicrous.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of funny1
First recorded in 1730–40; fun + -y 1
Origin of funny2
First recorded in 1780–90; perhaps jocular use of funny 1
Explanation
Something that is funny is amusing or comical. Comedians make their living being funny. It seems like the adjective funny should describe something fun — but it doesn’t always. A fun rollercoaster ride might make you scream instead of laugh. In fact, funny is also used in the sense of something that is fishy or shady, or just a little odd, like a funny feeling, or a person who seems a little funny, meaning weird. So if someone calls you funny, make sure they are smiling before you thank them for the compliment.
Vocabulary lists containing funny
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Jane Coates described her daughter Lucy Harrison as "energetic, very intelligent, funny and empathetic"
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
I think death is a very funny tool in comedy; I’m not afraid to go there, ever.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
She is also, as “Ted Lasso” fans know, very funny.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
I thought that was funny, but I didn’t know if that would be something anyone cared about.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Avery walks over to see what I’m doing and laughs as she reads the funny poem about excuses over my shoulder.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
Did these two never read the funnies growing up?
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2024
I always start the day reading the funnies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2022
It’s a little like TikTok but specifically for Netflix funnies.
From The Verge ● Oct. 4, 2021
“I loved the funnies — the Mickey Mouse, the Donald Duck cars,” he told the Orange County Register in 2014.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2021
I’d ask her wouldn’t she hate my giving up the funnies and the automobile trip when there wasn’t a thing I could do for her anymore.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Here Ms. Howden displays an instinctive wisdom of her own; sometimes, silence is funnier than anything you could say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
There’s nothing funnier to me than a confident moron.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
Elsewhere in his interview, McSweeney said he found Donald Trump "much funnier than I expected him to be".
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
If you have watched any of these — if they comforted you on your worst days and made good ones better — Burrows had a hand in making your life funnier.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
The tingling sensation I normally got in my fingers now stormed through my whole body, like just being near him would make every story funnier and more memorable.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
A mashup of a memoir, a self-help book, a personal-finance guide, a serious and startling social history of wealth and a standup comedy routine, this is one of the funniest financial books I’ve ever read.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
These scenes are where the film does its best work, conveying the necessity of unstructured play with ease alongside the movie’s funniest jokes.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026
To Burrows, it was the funniest show he ever worked on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
"He was incredible, the funniest life and soul, he would light up any room that he'd go into," she said.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
She looks shocked and I think her expression is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
