humorous
/ˈhjuːməɹəs/
"humorous" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“humorous” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,992 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #12,992
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Full of humor or arousing laughter; funny.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | humorous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈhjuːməɹəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #12,992 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “humorous” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for humorous is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhjuːməɹəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,992 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for humorous, with forms such as "hhumorous", "hmuorous", and "hummorous". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "humerus", "humongous", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English humorous (compare Medieval Latin hūmorōsus), equivalent to humor + -ous. The correct English form is humorous, spelled H-U-M-O-R-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Full of humor or arousing laughter; funny.
- 2Showing humor; witty, jocular.
- 3Damp or watery.
- 4Dependent on or caused by one's humour or mood; capricious, whimsical.
Etymology
From Middle English humorous (compare Medieval Latin hūmorōsus), equivalent to humor + -ous.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hhumorous,hmuorous,hummorous,humoorus,humorosu,humorouss,humorrous,humoruos,humroous,huomrous,uhmorous
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of humorous - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “humorous”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-U-M-O-R-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhjuːməɹəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “humerus” - see the side-by-side comparison. humorous vs humerus
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.