# humour

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈhjuː.mə(ɹ)/ · frequency rank #9,189

## Definitions
1. The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
2. A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
3. Any 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.
4. Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
5. Moist vapour, moisture.

## Etymology
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".

## Easily confused with
- **hour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hour-vs-humour)
- **humor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/humor-vs-humour)
- **honour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/honour-vs-humour)
- **hummus** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hummus-vs-humour)
- **Humber** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/humber-vs-humour)
- **hummer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hummer-vs-humour)
- **humbug** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/humbug-vs-humour)

## Common misspellings (8)
`hhumour`, `hmuour`, `hummour`, `humoru`, `humourr`, `humuor`, `huomur`, `uhmour`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/humour