A humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter:
— He laughed unpleasantly at his own jest.

synonyms: gag, jape, joke, laugh.

Roget 857: laughingstock, jestingstock^†, gazingstock^†; butt, game, fair game; April fool etc. (dupe) 547^†.    original, oddity; queer fish, odd fish; quiz, square toes; old monkey, old fogey, fogey monkey, fogy monkey; buffoon etc. (jester) 844; pantomimist etc. (actor) 599.    schlemiel.    jest etc. (wit) 842.    ... show more

Roget 643: unimportance, insignificance, nothingness, immateriality.    triviality, levity, frivolity; paltriness etc. adj.; poverty; smallness etc. 32; vanity etc. (uselessness) 645; matter of indifference etc. 866; no object.    nothing, nothing to signify, nothing worth speaking of, nothing particular, nothing to boast of, nothing to speak of; small matter, no great matter, trifling matter etc. adj.; mere joke, mere nothing; hardly anything; scarcely anything; nonentity, small beer, cipher; no great shakes, peu de chose [Fr.]; child's play, kinderspiel.    toy, plaything, popgun, paper pellet, gimcrack, gewgaw, bauble, trinket, bagatelle, Rickshaw, knickknack, whim-wham, trifle, trifles light as air;" yankee notions [U.S.].    trumpery, trash, rubbish, stuff, fatras^†, frippery; leather or prunello;" chaff, drug, froth bubble smoke, cobweb; weed; refuse etc. (inutility) 645; scum etc. (dirt) 653.    joke, jest, snap of the fingers; fudge etc. (unmeaning) 517; fiddlestick^†, fiddlestick end^†; pack of nonsense, mere farce.    straw, pin, fig, button, rush; bulrush, feather, halfpenny, farthing, brass farthing, doit^†, peppercorn, jot, rap, pinch of snuff, old son; cent, mill, picayune, pistareen^†, red cent [U.S.].    minutiae, details, minor details, small fry; dust in the balance, feather in the scale, drop in the ocean, flea-bite, molehill.    nine days' wonder, ridiculus mus [Lat.]; flash in the pan etc. (impotence) 158; much ado about nothing etc. (overestimation) 482.    ... show more

Roget 842: wit, humor, wittiness; sense of humor; attic wit, attic salt; atticism^†; salt, esprit, point, fancy, whim, drollery, pleasantry.    farce, buffoonery, fooling, tomfoolery; shenanigan [U.S.], harlequinade etc. 599^†; broad farce, broad humor; fun, espieglerie [Fr.]; vis comica [Lat.].    jocularity; jocosity, jocoseness^†; facetiousness; waggery, waggishness; whimsicality; comicality etc. 853.    banter, badinage, retort, repartee, smartness, ready wit, quid-pro-quo; ridicule etc. 856.    jest, joke, jape, jibe; facetiae [Lat.], levity, quips and cranks; capital joke; canorae nugae [Lat.]; standing jest, standing joke, private joke, conceit, quip, quirk, crank, quiddity, concetto^†, plaisanterie [Fr.], brilliant idea; merry thought, bright thought, happy thought; sally; flash of wit, flash of merriment; scintillation; mot [Fr.], mot pour rire [Fr.]; witticism, smart saying, bon-mot, jeu d'esprit [Fr.], epigram; jest book; dry joke, quodlibet, cream of the jest.    word-play, jeu de mots [Fr.]; play of words, play upon words; pun, punning; double entente, double entendre [Fr.] etc. (ambiguity) 520; quibble, verbal quibble; conundrum etc. (riddle) 533; anagram, acrostic, double acrostic, trifling, idle conceit, turlupinade^†.    old joke, tired joke, flat joke, Joe Miller^†.    ... show more

Dutch: bak, gebbetje, geestigheid, grap, joke, koddigheid, mop, plaisanterie, witz
Polish: żart, kawał, dowcip

Activity characterized by good humor.

synonyms: jocularity, joke.

Tell a joke; speak humorously.

synonym: joke.

Roget 842: joke, jest, crack a joke, make a joke, jape, cut jokes; perpetrate a joke; pun, perpetrate a pun; make fun of, make merry with; kid, kid around, fool around; set the table in a roar etc. (amuse) 840.    retort; banter etc. (ridicule) 856; ridentem dicere verum [Lat.]; joke at one's expense.    take in jest.    [make a joke which is not funny] bomb, fall flat; go over like a lead balloon.    ... show more

Act in a funny or teasing way.

synonym: joke.