risible
adjective
Did you know?
If someone makes a ridiculous remark about your risible muscles, they are not necessarily deriding your physique. Risible can also mean "associated with laughter," so risible muscles can simply be the ones used for laughing. (You've also got a set of risorius muscles around your mouth that help you smile.) Next time you find something laughable, tip your hat to ridēre, the Latin verb meaning "to laugh" that gave us risible as well as ridiculous and deride.
Synonyms
Examples of risible in a Sentence
Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2024
Having become frivolous, vainglorious, and suicidal, the Republican Party is on the verge of super-gluing itself to its risible liability of a perma-candidate for the eighth year in a row.
—Daniel Foster, National Review, 30 Nov. 2023
Yet Trump’s latest bit of performative amnesia is perhaps his most risible.
—Christian Schneider, National Review, 11 Jan. 2024
The idea that a President DeSantis could somehow be a more dangerously illiberal figure than Trump seems risible after watching both of them campaign.
—Ross Douthat, The Mercury News, 17 Jan. 2024
Her contemporaries found the performance at once irresistible and risible.
—Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 18 Sep. 2023
Normally, in the wake of a record-setting 65-win, 135-point season, the idea of a bold retool would seem risible and unnecessary.
—Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 6 May 2023
In sitcom terms, The Mary Tyler Moore Show was never so dishonest, so low-key hostile, or so risible.
—Armond White, National Review, 13 Oct. 2023
The success of these films would lead to something a bit more risible from Silberg: 1985’s Rappin’, starring Mario Van Peebles, dubbed over by Ice-T and Master Gee of the Sugarhill Gang (whose younger brother starred in the film).
—Nicholas Bell, Spin, 16 Aug. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'risible.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to risible
Dictionary Entries Near risible
Cite this Entry
“Risible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/risible. Accessed 3 Jun. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
risible
adjective
Share