different between laughter vs laugher

English

Alternative forms

• laughtre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English laughter, laghter, la?ter, 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.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l??ft?/
• (US) enPR: l?f?t?r, IPA^(key): /?læft?/
• Rhymes: -??ft?(r)

Noun

laughter (usually uncountable, plural laughters)

1. The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
2. 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.

   • Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter.

3. (archaic) A reason for merriment.

Usage notes

Laughter is statistically the happiest English language word on Twitter according to the Hedonometer, an online tool that measures happiness, with an overall happiness score of 8.5 out of 9, followed by happiness, which scored 8.44, and love, which scored 8.42.

Related terms

• laugh

Translations

Anagrams

• laughtre

Middle English

Alternative forms

• (Early ME) lehter, lihter, leihter, lahter, leahter, hleiter
• lauhtre, laghter, la?ter, lau?ter, laughtere, lau?tere, laghtre, laughtre, lei?tir, la?tir, lau?tur, laughtir

Etymology

From Old English hleahtor, from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?lau?xt?r/, /?l?i?xt?r/, /?laxt?r/, /?lixt?r/

Noun

laughter (plural laughtres)

1. Laughter; the production of laughs or snickers.

2. An instance or bout of laughing or laughter.
3. A humorous matter; something worthy of being derided.

Descendants

• English: laughter
• Scots: lachter, lauchter

References

• “laughter, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-19.

English

Etymology

laugh +? -er

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: l?f?, läf? IPA^(key): /?læf?/, /?l??f?/
• (US) enPR: l?f? IPA^(key): /?læf?/
• Rhymes: -æf?(r), Rhymes: -??f?(?)

Noun

laugher (plural laughers)

1. One who laughs.
   • 1863, George Eliot, Romola, Volume II, Book III, Chapter XXV, page 309

     He and his companions […] were exchanging jokes with that sort of ostentatious laughter which implies a desire to prove that the laugher is not mortified though some people might suspect it.

   • 1992, Jib Fowles, Why Viewers Watch: A Reappraisal of Television's Effects (page 119)

     These are the people whose laughter you hear after the boffolas on shows that have been filmed without audiences. I don't suppose all these laughers are dead, but a lot of them must be by this time.

2. A game in which an opponent is defeated by a sizable margin; a blowout.
3. A variety of the domestic pigeon.

Related terms

• laugh
• laughingly
• laughter

Translations