These words refer to what causes or is intended to cause amusement or laughter. Humorous is most often restricted to successful attempts to amuse or to people who succeed in such attempts: a humorous story; a humorous fellow, full of diverting remarks. Less often, the word can refer only to the attempt: His humorous essays are not half so amusing as those of Thurber. The word seldom refers to a warm-hearted sympathetic or good-natured treatment of small failings or ironies, those that prompt smiles rather than laughter or derision.

Comic and comical relate instead to comedy, which can include the humorous but is a more general category, including slapstick, parody or even caustic satire. Comic is a neutral word by which to refer to this category: comic writers. Comic , in fact, is now often used as a noun to refer to any comedian: nightclub comics. Comical , by contrast, can refer to anything or anyone whose effect is amusing, laughable or absurd, whether such an effect is intentional or not: a comical misunderstanding that delighted the spectators but caused the embarrassed delegates to call for a recess; he cut a comical figure in his pretentious finery. These distinctions are not always observed in the use of the two words.

Funny is the most general of these words and the most informal, but it is focused mainly on whatever results in laughter: a comedian whose jokes weren’t really very funny ; a howlingly funny slip of the tongue. When something or someone is inadvertently funny , it may be because of oddness, unfamiliarity, abnormality or inappropriateness: the funny old man with the funny walk. This shades off into a description of any thing strange or suspicious: His wife gave him a funny look. On the other hand, the word can categorize an attempt, like comic: professional funny men; funny business that was tedious and overdone. Facetious once could be approving, but now is often an unfavourable description or silly or ill-timed attempts at the humorous : a facetious ass who always forgot the punch lines to the jokes he told; facetious remarks that kept sidetracking any serious discussion of the problem.

Jocose and jocular are the most formal words here and closely related in meaning. Both come from Latin roots meaning jest or joke and both can apply to a person given to jesting or to the amusement caused by such remarks. Jocose can sometimes function as a milder substitute for facetious, pointing to feeble attempts at humour, especially when they are heavy-handed or pompous: jocose inanities that were stuffy and old-hat. Jocular may imply a constant resort to jokes or wisecracks in the hope of cheering up or amusing others: jocular comments on the bad food and worse weather. It may sometimes apply to the deliberate turning away of a serious question by a light answer: the jocular anecdote with which he disposed of the young man’s objection.

Droll compares with one aspect of funny in pointing to someone who is whimsical or odd: the droll old curmudgeon. It can also refer to a comic impulse that is clever, deadpan or laconic: the droll understatement of the British. It can also refer to comic work that is in a mordant or sardonic vein: Balzac’s Droll Stories. Waggish can also indicate humour that is clever, but the word also suggests a playful irreverence in someone given to in-jokes or sly rejoinders: waggish remarks about the poor lady’s grotesque and comical evening gown. Witty is more inclusive than droll or waggish in pointing to a brilliant or surprising play of intelligence in the delivery of amusing and trenchant observations on human foibles or follies: Oscar Wilde’s witty repartee; a witty parody of television commercials. Witty can apply as well to the light and good-natured, like humorous, as to the caustic and withering: witty conundrums about trivialities; witty aspersions that cast doubt on the sincerity and competence of the playwright.