ridicule means ridiculous. It carries an Arena rating of 1490, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, ridicule ranks #1,013 of 28,655 for Qualifying, #4,204 of 17,052 for Most Malleable Words, #4,714 of 17,058 for Most Vivid Words, #7,289 of 17,052 for Most Elegant Words.
ridicule is pronounced /ˈɹɪdɪkjuːl/.
Why “ridicule” is a great word
Laughably absurd in quality, or the act of scornful mockery. From French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus ("laughable, amusing, absurd"), from ridēre ("to laugh"). The noun derives from Latin rīdiculum, the neuter form of rīdiculus. The verb is from French ridiculer. Unlike katagelasticism (which names the specific psychological disposition of taking joy in laughing at others) or taunt (which implies mockery designed to provoke a reaction), ridicule is the colder, more general instrument of diminishment through scornful humor. It is the collective snort of a schoolyard at a mispronounced word, the mime of a stutter held for cruel beats too long, the public unspooling of dignity until only a brittle joke remains—the terrible democracy of laughter turned weapon, reminding us that to be human is to be vulnerable to the irreversible shift from with to at.
Etymology
The obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”).
The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter of rīdiculus.
The verb is from the noun or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule.
adj
- ridiculouse.g.“late 17th century, John Aubrey, Brief Lives
This action […] became so ridicule.”
noun
- Derision; mocking or humiliating words or behavior.e.g.“Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, / Yet touch'd and sham'd by Ridicule alone.”
- An object of sport or laughter; a laughing stock.e.g.“[Marlborough] was so miserably ignorant, that his deficiencies made him the ridicule of his contemporaries.”
- The quality of being ridiculous; ridiculousness.e.g.“to see the ridicule of this monstrous practice”
- A small woman's handbag; a reticule.
verb
- To criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of.e.g.“His older sibling constantly ridiculed him with sarcastic remarks.”
Words closest in meaning
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