Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as risible.
  • noun Something capable of exciting smiles or laughter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to laughter; used in laughing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to laughter, used in laughing, or to be the subject of laughter.
  • adjective A particularly severe form of epileptic fit.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Man had been defined as a gelastic apteryx, but in view of the attitude of women towards the Plumage Bill the definition could hardly be allowed to fit the requirements of the spindle side of creation.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 29, 1914 Various

  • Later, it turned out, that he was suffering from a rare form of epileptic episode called gelastic seizure, reports the New York Daily News.

    The Times of India 2010

  • Each word in the lexicon, though technically equal to any other, derived its potency from its gelastic index - a calculation consisting of letter count, syllabic complexity, and its mirthpoint, as experienced by the word's wielder.

    High Jinks Mark Flanagan 2011

  • Evan was born with a rare condition known as Hypothalmic Hamartoma, a benign brain tumour that causes gelastic (laughing) seizures.

    2007 June « A Bird’s Nest 2007

  • Evan was born with a rare condition known as Hypothalmic Hamartoma, a benign brain tumour that causes gelastic (laughing) seizures.

    It’s not brain surgery, people. Oh, wait. Yes, it is. « A Bird’s Nest 2007

  • Bill, what they actually are, are something known at gelastic seizures.

    CNN Transcript Aug 20, 2004 2004

  • Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition gives these synonyms for goofus: foolheaded, for grins, freaky, funny, and gelastic.

    MyLinkVault Newest Links 2009

  • Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition gives these synonyms for goofus: foolheaded, for grins, freaky, funny, and gelastic.

    MyLinkVault Newest Links 2009

  • Unlike most such growths, a hypothalamic hamartoma is symptomatic; it most often causes gelastic seizures, and can cause visual problems, other seizures, rage disorders associated with hypothalamic diseases, and early onset of puberty.

    Find Me A Cure 2008

  • Words Containing One Basic Root canine cynic ` dog 'febrile pyretic ` fever' lingual glossal ` tongue 'peculiar idiotic ` one's own, private' popular demotic ` people 'position thesis ` place, put' rabies mania ` madness 'regal basilic ` king' risible gelastic ` laugh 'scientism gnosticism ` know' stellar astral ` star 'terrene chthonic ` earth' testis orchid ` testis '

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VII No 3 1980

Comments

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  • Crude youngsters employ a crass trick

    To replicate trumpetings gastric,

    While I, for my part,

    Can hear in no fart

    A note in the least bit gelastic.

    July 19, 2016

  • (adjective) - (1) Of or pertaining to laughter; from Greek gelastikos, inclined to laugh. From Greek gelos, laughter, and skopeo, to see. --Edward Lloyd's Encyclopædic Dictionary, 1895 (2) Geloscopy, divination performed by means of laughter; divining any person's qualities or character by observation of the manner of his laughter. --Nathaniel Bailey's Etymological English Dictionary, 1736

    February 4, 2018