risible

American  

[riz-uh-buhl] / ˈrɪz ə bəl /

adjective

1. causing or capable of causing laughter; laughable; ludicrous.

   Synonyms:

   comical, humorous, funny

2. having the ability, disposition, or readiness to laugh.

3. pertaining to or connected with laughing.

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risible British  

/ ˈrɪzɪbəl /

adjective

1. having a tendency to laugh

2. causing laughter; ridiculous

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Other Word Forms

• risibly adverb
• unrisible adjective

Etymology

Origin of risible

1550–60; < Late Latin rīsibilis that can laugh, equivalent to Latin rīs ( us ) laughed (past participle of rīdēre to laugh) + -ibilis -ible

Explanation

Risible describes something that is laughable or amusing, like seeing dozens of clowns emerge from a very tiny car. Risible is a fun word to say (it rhymes with visible), but it's not used all that much, maybe because it's a little formal. If you started saying the word risible all the time, that itself might be a little bit risible. Fun — and less stuffy — synonyms include amusing, comic, comical, funny, laughable, and mirthful.

Example Sentences

And the current deal also comes with notable concessions that clamp down on some of Live Nation’s most risible business practices.

From Slate • Mar. 10, 2026

I hadn’t been to an Angels game in a few years, and the stadium was as risible as I remembered it, if not more so.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 19, 2024

Her works achieve the difficult feat of synthesizing a coma-inducing dullness with piercingly shrill extended diatribes to create reverse masterpieces worthy of the most risible North Korean propaganda.

From Salon • Sep. 7, 2024

But the movie feels reduced to a muddle, and its climactic sequence, which ought to have been a moving depiction of love and sacrifice, comes off as unintentionally campy and risible.

From New York Times • Jun. 20, 2024

Europe was in transports of laughter at a country proclaiming human liberty, while clinging to all the traditions of slavery, and her risible faculties were really excusable in face of such a paradox.

From Abraham Lincoln's Religion by Peters, Madison Clinton