comedy means a choric song of celebration or revel, especially in Ancient Greece. It carries an Arena rating of 1628, earned across 13 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, comedy ranks #255 of 42,762 for Qualifying, #572 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #755 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #762 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
comedy is pronounced /ˈkɒmədi/.
Why “comedy” is a great word
A dramatic work, especially a play, that is light and humorous and typically has a happy ending, born from the Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), from κῶμος (kōmos, "revel, merrymaking") + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, "song, ode"). Unlike "tragedy," which charts the fall of the exalted into pity and terror, or "drama," the neutral vessel for all human conflict, comedy is an art of restoration and release. It is the pompous deflated by a pratfall, the shared glance over mistaken identity, the triumphant marriage that repairs the broken household—art's persistent, improbable wager that we might still stumble, laughing, toward the light.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English comedie, borrowed from Middle French comedie, from Latin cōmoedia, borrowed from Ancient Greek κωμῳδῐ́ᾱ (kōmōidĭ́ā), from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”), or from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer, bard”). Doublet of commedia.
noun
- a choric song of celebration or revel, especially in Ancient Greece
- a light, amusing play with a happy endinge.g.“A Midsummer Night's Dream is among Shakespeare's most famous comedies.”
- a narrative poem with an agreeable ending (e.g., The Divine Comedy)
- a dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical in tone
- the genre of such works
- entertainment composed of jokes, satire, or humorous performancee.g.“Why would you be watching comedy when there are kids starving right now?”
- the art of composing comedy
- a humorous event
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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