jocular
Americanadjective
adjective
-
characterized by joking and good humour
-
meant lightly or humorously; facetious
Related Words
See jovial.
Other Word Forms
- jocularity noun
- jocularly adverb
- overjocular adjective
- overjocularly adverb
- semijocular adjective
- semijocularly adverb
Etymology
Origin of jocular
First recorded in 1620–30; from Latin joculāris, equivalent to jocul(us) “little joke” ( joc(us) joke + -ulus -ule ) + -āris -ar 1
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.
He’s a jocular talker who will frequently tap your arm or squeeze your shoulder for emphasis.
The incomprehensibility of it all, of every awful thing wreaking havoc at once, has Gus in a state of jocular shock.
From Los Angeles Times
The movie seems to recoil from its own hammering dramatics, with Bryce Dessner’s score toggling uneasily between jocular blues and dour, overcompensating strings.
From Los Angeles Times
The company’s aesthetic mode is wayward, oblique, loose and jocular.
From Los Angeles Times
And its inclusion in a national inventory of cultural heritage currently being created looks set to reignite the jocular dispute.
From BBC
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.
