VocabularyBasePractice words

Meaning & use

comedy

noun·Everyday

Last updated

UK/ˈkɒmədi/
US/ˈkɑːmədi/

Meanings

  1. nouncountable

    A play, movie, show or act whose main aim is to make people laugh.

    Grammar: As a type of entertainment it is countable: a new comedy; as a genre, uncountable: I like comedy.

    Patterns

    • a comedy about something
    • watch a comedy

    We watched a comedy about two neighbors who hate each other.

    She writes comedy for television.

    The festival features stand-up comedy every night.

  2. noununcountable

    The funny or amusing side of something in real life.

    Grammar: Takes no article: the comedy of the situation.

    Patterns

    • the comedy of something

    There was comedy in the way he tried to fold the tent.

    He couldn't see the comedy in missing the last bus.

  3. nouncountabletechnical

    In classical drama, a story that ends happily, as opposed to a tragedy.

    Grammar: Often found in discussions of Shakespeare: his comedies and tragedies.

    Patterns

    • a Shakespearean comedy

    Twelfth Night is a comedy ending in marriage.

    The class compared the comedies and the tragedies.

Word forms

pluralcomedies

Common combinations

romantic comedy
They watched a romantic comedy on Friday night.
stand-up comedy
He tried stand-up comedy at an open mic.
dark comedy
The film is a dark comedy about a funeral.
situation comedy
A situation comedy follows the same characters each week.
comedy of errors
The trip turned into a comedy of errors.
light comedy
She prefers light comedy to serious drama.

Synonyms and how they differ

farce
Farce is an extreme comedy built on silly situations and exaggerated action.
humor
Humor is the quality of being funny in general, not a type of show.
satire
Satire uses comedy to criticize society or people in power.

Opposites

tragedydrama

Word family

comedian noun
a performer who tells jokes
comedienne noun
a female comedian (less used now)
comedic adjective
relating to comedy
comical adjective
funny, often in an odd or silly way

Commonly confused: comedy or comic?

comedy vs comic

Comic can mean a funny performer or a picture-story magazine, while comedy is the entertainment itself.

Practice

Which kind of story is a comedy in the classical sense?

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “comedy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Your sentence stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.

Explore more words