laughter
/ˈlæftɚ/noun
laughter is spelled L-A-U-G-H-T-E-R: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 6,047th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, laughter means “The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of laughter is laughters.
How many letters and syllables are in laughter?
| Letters | 8: L-A-U-G-H-T-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 13 times per million words; the 6,047th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is laughter?
Laughter appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 6,047th 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 laughter?
- UK /ˈlɑːftə/
- US /ˈlæftɚ/
Laughter has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-laughter.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with laughter?
5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as laughter from its last stressed vowel (/æftəɹ/):
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 laughter
- laughters plural
- laughtre
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does laughter mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
Their loud laughter betrayed their presence.
- 2
A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the laughing face, particularly of the lips, and of the whole body, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs.
- 3
archaicA reason for merriment.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Laughter in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 laughter come from?
From Middle English laughter, laghter, laȝter, from Old English hleahtor (“laughter, jubilation, derision”), from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz (“laughter”), from Proto-Indo-European *klek-, *kleg- (“to shout”). Cognate with German Gelächter (“laughter, hilarity, merriment”), Danish and Norwegian latter (“laughter”), Icelandic hlátur (“laughter”). More at laugh.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).