laughter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The act or sound of laughing.

   The room filled with laughter at his joke.

2. 2
   noun

   A reason or cause for amusement.

   The whole mix-up became a source of laughter for years afterward.

From Middle English laughter, laghter, laȝter, from Old English hleahtor (“laughter, jubilation, derision”), from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz (“laughter”), from Proto-Indo-European *klek-, *kleg- (“to shout”). Cognate with German Gelächter (“laughter, hilarity, merriment”), Danish and Norwegian latter (“laughter”), Icelandic hlátur (“laughter”). More at laugh.

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