risibility

[ riz-uh-bil-i-tee ]

noun,plural ris·i·bil·i·ties.
  1. Often risibilities. the ability or disposition to laugh; humorous awareness of the ridiculous and absurd.

Origin of risibility

1
From the Late Latin word rīsibilitās, dating back to 1610–20. See risible, -ity

Words Nearby risibility

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use risibility in a sentence

  • His light-heartedness and risibility were often assumed to hide bitter resentment or boiling indignation.

  • And they were soon joined by Sir Sedley Clarendel, whose quaint conceits and remarks assisted the risibility of the scene.

    Camilla | Fanny Burney
  • My "caubeen" especially excited the risibility of the merry boys who thronged the streets.

    The Felon's Track | Michael Doheny
  • A passage which I can refer only to the erudition and risibility of our modern surgeons and anatomists.

    Gilbertus Anglicus | Henry Ebenezer Handerson
  • I was noted, among my comrades, and not always to my advantage, for my absolutely ungovernable risibility.

British Dictionary definitions for risibility

risibility

/ (ˌrɪzɪˈbɪlɪtɪ) /


nounplural -ties
  1. a tendency to laugh

  2. hilarity; laughter

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012