Skip to main content
PlainSpell

humour

hu·mour/ˈhjuːmɚ/noun, verb

humour is spelled H-U-M-O-U-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables (hu·mour). It appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “humor vs humour” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, humour means “The quality of being amusing, comical, funny” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of humour is humours.

How many letters and syllables are in humour?

Letters6: H-U-M-O-U-R
Syllables2: hu·mour
In writing6.8 times per million words; the 9,165th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is humour?

Humour appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce humour?

  • UK /ˈhjuː.mə(ɹ)/
  • US /ˈhjuːmɚ/
  • US /ˈjuːmɚ/

Humour has 2 syllables, split hu·mour in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-humor.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with humour

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

humor vs humour480 G

Also written: humor.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with humour?

6 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as humour from its last stressed vowel (/uməɹ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of humour

  • humours plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • humor US
  • humouring participle, present
  • humoured participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does humour mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    UKThe quality of being amusing, comical, funny.

    She has a great sense of humour, and I always laugh a lot whenever we get together.

  2. 2

    UKA mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.

    He was in a particularly vile humour that afternoon.

  3. 3

    UKarchaicAny of the fluids in an animal body, especially the four "cardinal humours" of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body.

    For some days a fistula lacrymalis had come into my left eye, which discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger.

  4. 4

    UKEither of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.

  5. 5

    UKobsoleteMoist vapour, moisture.

verb

  1. 1

    UKTo pacify by indulging.

    I know you don't believe my story, but humour me for a minute and imagine it to be true.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Humour in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchhumour (wit), humeur, disposition (mood), amadouer (to pacify by indulging)
GermanHumor (wit), Laune, Stimmung (mood), jemandem seinen Willen lassen (to pacify by indulging), Körpersaft, Saft (historical: any of the four cardinal humors)
Portuguesehumor (wit)
Spanishhumor, gracia (wit), seguir la corriente, hacer el favor (to pacify by indulging), aguadija (historical: any of the four cardinal humors)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does humour come from?

From Middle English humour, from Old French humor, humour, from Latin hūmor, correctly ūmor (“liquid”), from hūmeō, correctly ūmeō (“to be moist”). The h in these words, which was silent in late Classical Latin, is folk etymological, due to the erroneous association with the word humus (“soil”). The shift in meaning "liquid" > "mood" is attributed to the classical system of physiology, where human behaviour is regulated by four bodily humours (fluids). The sense "mood" gave rise to the verb sense "to give in to someone's mood or whim" and, by narrowing of meaning, the sense "wit".

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after humour