laughter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.

   Their loud laughter betrayed their presence.

2. 2
   noun

   A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the laughing face, particularly of the lips, and of the whole body, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs.

   The act of laughter, which is caused by a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves.

3. 3
   noun

   the activity of laughing

4. 4
   noun

   the sound of laughing

5. 5
   noun

   A reason for merriment.

6. 6
   name

   A surname.

Etymology

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.