humourous

adj

"humourous" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“humourous” is uncommon English (frequency #91,618 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#91,618
frequency rank, English
23,837
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Alternative spelling of humorous.

Key facts for humourous
PropertyValue
Headwordhumourous
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters9
Frequency rank#91,618
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “humourous” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). humourous lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

humourous is uncommon English at frequency #91,618 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Alternative spelling of humorous.".

Zero misspellings are on record for humourous in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From humour + -ous. The correct English form is humourous, spelled H-U-M-O-U-R-O-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alternative spelling of humorous.

Etymology

From humour + -ous.

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

How do you spell "humourous"?
"humourous" is spelled H-U-M-O-U-R-O-U-S.
What does "humourous" mean?
As an adjective, "humourous" means: Alternative spelling of humorous.
What is the origin of the word "humourous"?
From humour + -ous. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “humourous”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is H-U-M-O-U-R-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list