Word of the Day

: May 4, 2014

risible

adjective RIZZ-uh-bul

What It Means

1 a : capable of laughing

b : disposed to laugh

2 : arousing or provoking laughter; especially : laughable

3 : associated with, relating to, or used in laughter

risible in Context

Megan's friends teased her for the risible notion that one day she'd find a unicorn lurking in her yard.

"[The director] has a strong command of CGI technology and 3D effects, and the movie is so grand in scale that you can't help surrender to the spectacle, even if the stuff that's going on with the people in the film is often close to risible." - From a movie review by Rene Rodriguez in The Miami Herald, February 23, 2014

Did You Know?

If someone makes a ridiculous remark about your "risible muscles," he or she is not necessarily deriding your physique. "Risible" can also mean "associated with laughter," so "risible muscles" can simply be the ones used for laughing. (In fact, you've got a set of risorius muscles around your mouth that help you smile.) The next time you find something laughable, tip your hat to "ridēre," the Latin verb meaning "to laugh" that gave us "risible" and "risorius," as well as "ridiculous" and "deride."