Hilarious Definition & Meaning

American

British

Usage

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms hilarious American [hi-lair-ee-uhs, -lar-, hahy-] / hɪˈlɛər i əs, -ˈlær-, haɪ- /

adjective

1. arousing great merriment; extremely funny.

   a hilarious story; a hilarious old movie.

2. boisterously merry or cheerful.

   a hilarious celebration.

   Synonyms: high-spirited, rollicking, jolly, lively Antonyms: solemn, serious, sad

3. merry; cheerful.

hilarious British / hɪˈlɛərɪəs /

adjective

1. very funny or merry

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

What does hilarious mean? Hilarious means extremely funny, like literally lol funny.Hilarious is most commonly used to describe someone or something (like a joke or a movie) as super funny. Much less commonly, it used to mean very merry or cheerful, as in a hilarious celebration.Example: The movie was absolutely hilarious—I was laughing so hard at one point that I was crying.

Other Word Forms

• hilariously adverb
• hilariousness noun
• hyperhilarious adjective
• hyperhilariously adverb
• hyperhilariousness noun
• unhilarious adjective
• unhilariously adverb
• unhilariousness noun

Etymology

Origin of hilarious

1815–25; < Latin hilar ( is ), hilar ( us ) cheerful (< Greek hilarós ) + -ious

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“Scary Movie” is a genuinely hilarious parody of horror tropes, while its sequels are merely decent clip packages, stitched together by increasingly weak narrative threads.

From Salon

Do they laugh and say: “That’s hilarious—good one”? Or do they scream and run away?

From The Wall Street Journal

The distraught Bonnie was not, however, the norm for Hawks women, who were notoriously indomitable, clever, resourceful and often hilarious.

From The Wall Street Journal

Amit Segal’s smart and often hilarious crash course in Israeli political history.

From The Wall Street Journal

The hilarious essay on Allen Ginsberg describes a fateful night in 1958 that Podhoretz spent arguing with the manic poet himself as Jack Kerouac sat silently by.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• amusing
• comical
• entertaining
• humorous
• laughable
• lively
• priceless
• uproarious

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.