hilarious
Americanadjective
-
arousing great merriment; extremely funny.
a hilarious story; a hilarious old movie.
-
boisterously merry or cheerful.
a hilarious celebration.
- Synonyms:
- high-spirited, rollicking, jolly, lively
-
merry; cheerful.
adjective
Usage
What does hilarious mean? Hilarious means extremely funny, like literally lol funny. Hilarious is most commonly used to describe someone or something (like a joke or a movie) as super funny. Much less commonly, it used to mean very merry or cheerful, as in a hilarious celebration. Example: The movie was absolutely hilarious—I was laughing so hard at one point that I was crying.
Other Word Forms
- hilariously adverb
- hilariousness noun
- hyperhilarious adjective
- hyperhilariously adverb
- hyperhilariousness noun
- unhilarious adjective
- unhilariously adverb
- unhilariousness noun
Etymology
Origin of hilarious
1815–25; < Latin hilar ( is ), hilar ( us ) cheerful (< Greek hilarós ) + -ious
Explanation
One person can find a joke a little funny, while someone else might find it downright hilarious. When something is super-funny, it's hilarious. Hilarious is an adjective that describes a high degree of humor. Things that are funny can cause you to smile or giggle, but when something is hilarious, it causes you to laugh out loud. Of course, what's hilarious to me might not be to you. When I scribbled obscenities on your face while you were asleep? I found that totally hilarious. You? Not so much. Hilarious is also used sarcastically, when something isn't funny at all. Like when you woke up: you glared at me and said "Hilarious."
Vocabulary lists containing hilarious
"My Favorite Chaperone," Vocabulary from the short story
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "H"
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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
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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.
It’s a hilarious take on bonding with ancestors, in this case in an intergalactic bathhouse where Zaalan’s Syrian ancestors must field obnoxious first world questions from millennial descendants.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026
"I'll be a bit clumsy up there -- so I know that's going to be hilarious and annoying at the same time."
From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026
The current “Comeback” storyline is the brighter side of the “AI Doc” coin in that Al’s glitches are surreal and hilarious at worst.
From Salon • Mar. 26, 2026
Its stitched-together scenes—frat pledge party, dining hall food fight, toga party, horse in Dean Wormer’s office, homecoming parade—were individually hilarious and held together only by the individual characters.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026
It was hilarious to watch the aunties and uncles, lying on the ground, laughing until they cried and blaming each other for letting go of the rope.
From "Amina's Voice" by Hena Khan
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.
