Definition of hilarious adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

hilarious

adjective

/hɪˈleəriəs/

/hɪˈleriəs/

jump to other results

extremely funny
- a hilarious joke/story
- Lynn found the whole situation hilarious.
- Do you know Pete? He's hilarious.
Synonyms funny
funnyamusing ▪ entertaining ▪ witty ▪ humorous ▪ comic ▪ hilariousThese words all describe somebody/something that makes you laugh or smile.
funny that makes you laugh:
a funny story
He was a very funny guy.
amusing funny and giving pleasure:
It’s a very amusing game to play.
entertaining that you enjoy watching, listening to, doing or experiencing:
It was a very entertaining evening.
witty clever and amusing; able to say or write clever and amusing things:
a witty remark
a witty public speaker
humorous funny and entertaining; showing a sense of humour:
a humorous look at the world of fashion
comic that makes you laugh:
Many of the scenes in the book are richly comic.
hilarious extremely funny
funny, amusing, humorous or comic?Amusing is the most general of these words because it includes the idea of being fun as well as making people laugh and can be used to describe events, activities and occasions: an amusing party/game/evening • a funny/humorous/comic party/game/evening. Humorous is more about showing that you see the humour in a situation, than actually making people laugh out loud. Comic is used especially to talk about writing and drama or things that are funny in a deliberate and theatrical way. It is not used to describe people (except for comic writers/actors). Funny can describe people, jokes and stories, things that happen, or anything that makes people laugh.Patterns
- a(n) funny/amusing/entertaining/witty/humorous/comic story
- a(n) funny/amusing/entertaining/witty/humorous speech
- a(n) funny/entertaining/witty/humorous/comic writer
- a(n) funny/amusing/hilarious joke
- to find something funny/amusing/entertaining/witty/humorous/hilarious
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
Hilarious is used with these nouns:
joke
parody
satire
…
See full entry
Word Originearly 19th cent.: from Latin hilaris (from Greek hilaros ‘cheerful’) + -ous. The sense ‘exceedingly amusing’ dates from the 1920s.

Want to learn more?

Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.

See hilarious in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

Check pronunciation: hilarious

Nearby words

trait

noun

From the Word list

Oxford 5000

Oxford Learner's Dictionaries Word of the Day