Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Characterized by or causing great merriment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Gleefully gay or merry; manifesting high spirits; exhilarated; jolly.

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

  • adjective Mirthful; noisy; merry.

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

  • adjective Very funny; causing great merriment and laughter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective marked by or causing boisterous merriment or convulsive laughter

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin hilaris, cheerful; see hilarity + –ious.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin hilaris ("cheerful"), from Ancient Greek ἱλαρός (hilaros, "cheerful, merry"), from ἵλαος (hilaos, "propitious, gracious, kind").

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Examples

Comments

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  • "It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's just hilarious."

    - Bill Hicks.

    July 7, 2008