What English words sounds the funniest for you?

[lllllllllllllllllllllllll]

I probably just have a dirty mind, but the word "come" is actually funny to me due to the dirty word that sound similar to it (I don't need to say it, you should know that by now    ). I actually try to avoid saying it as much as possible as I just can't wipe the stupid grin off my face when I hear the word. Like instead of saying "would you like to come with us?" I would rather say "would you like to join us?". 

[g2narat]

Hippopotamus. But it matters who says it. For some reason I find hippopotamus hilarious when it's pronounced by my fellow Filipinos (myself included). It sounds just like any other ordinary word when I hear Americans say it though. Oh, and also when it's said in British, that cracks me up too. Isn't that weird?

[Daimashin]

Pundit was really funny to me when I was a child. I thought "pundit" was pronounced as "poon-dit." I also thought that pundit was an Indian word, silly me. 

[jubvman]

I don't know about funniest, but the strangest sounding English word to me is definitely 'fathom'.

[Firelily99]

Manhole is interesting although yesterday I found mandate funny - clearly I need to be getting more sleep!  Some days words all sound normal to me and then I have stretches when almost everything I hear is hilarious!

[jptrey06]

Shuttlecock and Penal for me!

I remember in our Phys-Ed class in elementary when we all heard shuttlecock we just cant stop laughing in the middle of the class.

For Penal, It just sound dirty to me 

[basmae]

I always though the word "Burglar" sounded a little strange and slightly hard to say.

[internetdogfire1]

x

[jordanmc97]

After searching the internet for some of the funniest English words, this is what it came up with :

Abibliophobia - The fear of running out of reading material.

Absquatulate - To leave or abscond with something.

Allegator - Some who alleges.

Anencephalous - Lacking a brain.

Argle-bargle - A loud row or quarrel.

Batrachomyomachy - Making a mountain out of a molehill.

Billingsgate - Loud, raucous profanity.

Bloviate - To speak pompously or brag.

Blunderbuss - A gun with a flared muzzle or disorganized activity.

Borborygm - A rumbling of the stomach.

Boustrophedon - A back and forth pattern.

Bowyang - A strap that holds the pants legs in place.

Brouhaha - An uproar.

Bumbershoot - An umbrella.

Callipygian - Having an attractive rear end or nice buns.

Canoodle - To hug and kiss.

Cantankerous - Testy, grumpy.

Catercornered - Diagonal(ly).

Cockalorum - A small, haughty man.

Cockamamie - Absurd, outlandish.

Codswallop - Nonsense, balderdash.

Collop - A slice of meat or fold of flab.

Collywobbles - Butterflies in the stomach.

Comeuppance - Just reward, just deserts.

Crapulence - Discomfort from eating or drinking too much.

Crudivore - An eater of raw food.

Discombobulate - To confuse.

Donnybrook - An melee, a riot.

Doozy - Something really great.

Dudgeon - A bad mood, a huff.

Ecdysiast - An exotic dancer, a stripper.

Eructation - A burp, belch.

Fard - Face-paint, makeup.

Fartlek - An athletic training regime.

Fatuous - Unconsciously foolish.

Filibuster - Refusal to give up the floor in a debate to prevent a vote.

Firkin - A quarter barrel or small cask.

Flibbertigibbet - Nonsense, balderdash.

Flummox - To exasperate.

Folderol - Nonsense.

Formication - The sense of ants crawling on your skin.

Fuddy-duddy - An old-fashioned, mild-mannered person.

Furbelow - A fringe or ruffle.

Furphy - A portable water-container.

Gaberlunzie - A wandering beggar.

Gardyloo! - A warning shouted before throwing water from above.

Gastromancy - Telling fortune from the rumblings of the stomach.

Gazump - To buy something already promised to someone else.

Gobbledygook - Nonsense, balderdash.

Gobemouche - A highly gullible person.

Godwottery - Nonsense, balderdash.

Gongoozle - To stare at, kibitz.

Gonzo - Far-out journalism.

Goombah - An older friend who protects you.

Hemidemisemiquaver - A musical timing of 1/64.

Hobbledehoy - An awkward or ill-mannered young boy.

Hocus-pocus - Deceitful sleight of hand.

Hoosegow - A jail or prison.

Hootenanny - A country or folk music get-together.

Jackanapes - A rapscallion, hooligan.

Kerfuffle - Nonsense, balderdash.

Klutz - An awkward, stupid person.

La-di-da - An interjection indicating that something is pretentious.

Lagopodous - Like a rabbit's foot.

Lickety-split - As fast as possible.

Lickspittle - A servile person, a toady.

Logorrhea - Loquaciousness, talkativeness.

Lollygag - To move slowly, fall behind.

Malarkey - Nonsense, balderdash.

Maverick - A loner, someone outside the box.

Mollycoddle - To treat too leniently.

Mugwump - An independent politician who does not follow any party.

Mumpsimus - An outdated and unreasonable position on an issue.

Namby-pamby - Weak, with no backbone.

Nincompoop - A foolish person.

Oocephalus - An egghead.

Ornery - Mean, nasty, grumpy.

Pandiculation - A full body stretch.

Panjandrum - Someone who thinks himself high and mighty.

Pettifogger - A person who tries to befuddle others with his speech.

Pratfall - A fall on one's rear.

Quean - A disreputable woman.

Rambunctious - Aggressive, hard to control.

Ranivorous - Frog-eating

Rigmarole - Nonsense, unnecessary complexity.

Shenanigan - A prank, mischief.

Sialoquent - Spitting while speaking.

Skedaddle - To hurry somewhere.

Skullduggery - No good, underhanded dealing.

Slangwhanger - A loud abusive speaker or obnoxious writer.

Smellfungus - A perpetual pessimist.

Snickersnee - A long knife.

Snollygoster - A person who can't be trusted.

Snool - A servile person.

Tatterdemalion - A child in rags.

Troglodyte - Someone or something that lives in a cave.

Turdiform - Having the form of a lark.

Unremacadamized - Having not been repaved with macadam.

Vomitory - An exit or outlet.

Wabbit - Exhausted, tired, worn out.

Widdershins - In a contrary or counterclockwise direction.

Yahoo - A rube, a country bumpkin.

Wabbit is definitely one of my favorites along with smellfungus! 

[Victor Leigh]

Oh yes, the English language is riddled with funny words. Just, take for instance, the very word 'funny'. Just saying "That's funny" is rather ambiguous because you can either mean 'funny peculiar' or 'funny haha'. When I was in school, my teacher (English language teacher, of course) told my class a story about a foreigner arriving at an English airport (Heathrow, presumably). When asked if he had anything to declare, he thought for a while, then announced,

"Yes, I have a cow in my box."

The puzzled immigration officer looked at the luggage the foreigner was carrying but could not see anything big enough to carry a cow, even a very small one. After a long, convoluted conversation, the immigration officer comprehended what the foreigner was trying to say.

You see, the foreigner learned his English only part way. He learned that 'bough' was pronounced to rhyme with 'how' so he surmised that 'cough' should be pronounced like 'cow'. The box was simply his way of replacing the word 'chest' with one of its synonyms which, among others, included 'chest'. What he was trying to tell the immigration officer was that he had a cough in his chest.

That's how funny the English language can be. Yes, that's both 'funny haha' as well as 'funny peculiar'.

[LauraM]

Wabbit is definitely one of my favorites along with smellfungus! 

That's quite a list.  Not only do many of these words sound funny, but what I also like is that they are so descriptive.  It's a shame they're not used more often.

Out of that list here are some of my favorites:

"Abibliophobia - The fear of running out of reading material."

Yes, I think especially back in the pre-Internet and pre-Kindle days that would be a huge fear.  You could find yourself somewhere and run out of books and magazines to read!

"Batrachomyomachy - Making a mountain out of a molehill."

This is a fun one, too.  Who knew there was a word for this!

 

"Goombah - An older friend who protects you."

"Tatterdemalion - A child in rags."

I think these are great, too.  They sound like fairy tale characters.

The whole list really is a gem.  So many words and  all are so vivid and descriptive.  It really reminds us of how many unusual words there are in the English language, especially ones that fall out of use.

I've been enjoying this thread.  It's fun to see all the new responses.  I've shared some of my favorites previously, but here's another one: 

Onomatopoeia

I've always thought that "onomatopoeia" was a funny sounding word, and it's perfect for its meaning i.e. words that attempt to imitate sounds phonetically. 

[Caffajake]

I find 'squirrel' really funny. Not so much because of how it sounds in English, but how it sounds when non-native English speakers try to pronounce it! See this video:

[Victor Leigh]

That's quite a list.  Not only do many of these words sound funny, but what I also like is that they are so descriptive.  It's a shame they're not used more often.

Out of that list here are some of my favorites:

"Abibliophobia - The fear of running out of reading material."

Yes, I think especially back in the pre-Internet and pre-Kindle days that would be a huge fear.  You could find yourself somewhere and run out of books and magazines to read!

"Batrachomyomachy - Making a mountain out of a molehill."

This is a fun one, too.  Who knew there was a word for this!

 

"Goombah - An older friend who protects you."

"Tatterdemalion - A child in rags."

I think these are great, too.  They sound like fairy tale characters.

The whole list really is a gem.  So many words and  all are so vivid and descriptive.  It really reminds us of how many unusual words there are in the English language, especially ones that fall out of use.

I've been enjoying this thread.  It's fun to see all the new responses.  I've shared some of my favorites previously, but here's another one: 

Onomatopoeia

I've always thought that "onomatopoeia" was a funny sounding word, and it's perfect for its meaning i.e. words that attempt to imitate sounds phonetically.

Yes, I like that last one. The English language doesn't have too many words which reflect their meaning in their pronunciation. The Chinese language has lots of such words. A sneeze is called 'hatchoo' and a cat is called a 'meow'.

I find English words with double meanings rather hilarious. Like the band Pussy Riot. Makes you visualize rather salacious images. Same with tongue twisters like this one:

If a woodchuck would chuck wood, what wood would a woodchuck chuck?

Try saying that at high speed. My students always fall over laughing when I do that.

[Litnax]

Shuttlecock - I'm an avid badminton player and after all these years, this word still gets me  :grin: And most people won't say 'shuttlecock' anymore. They shorten it to 'shuttle'.

[Esperahol]

I spent a large period of my childhood seriously enjoying 19th century works of literature. Therefore my vocabulary is littered with lots of older terms such as persnickety, brouhaha, and rigamarole. There are times when I think I need to grow a really boss mustache to go with my antiquated terminology. But then I realize I'll just look like a hipster and that kills it for me.

[IndianapolisJones]

I've always found the words stupendous, vivacious, canoodle, lollygag, and jackanapes pretty funny, especially canoodle. Saying words with the letter v is also fun to do.

[darknessassassin]

I heard word "lunatic" for the first time in some movie with Ben Stiller and I spent the rest of the night laughing. I was about 14 years old back then. I'm not sure why but I still find that word pretty darn funny. 

[Rosyrain]

"Slug" is my funny word.  They are gross little creatures that spread their slime everywhere, compounded with a bad name.  It really is just one of those gross little words that make you cringe.

[skywatcher]

For me, this would be "hyperbole."

I'm not sure when this started, but I'm sure it was around my third or fourth grade that I used "hyper-bully" in order to remember what in the world the hyperbole does, haha.

[fitfattony]

It must be part of my British heritage, but hearing English slang words make me laugh. Lately its Bollocks and Plonker which I will lose it when I hear them.

Other things that make me laugh as mentioned before are different words for the same thing, elevator and lift, canteen and tuck shop, swimmers and togs etc

[PvtParts]

There's a cool (but weird) thing that happens when you look at a word too long. Try looking at any word in my comment for more than 30 seconds. Try it. It loses its familiarity! It's weird, isn't it? I made this observation ages ago independently back in high school, but I recently discovered that linguists have a name for it. It's called Jamais Vu!

[003]

Pulchritude  I am not sure why. It just sounds so funny to me despite its meaning. It's so funny to the ears and at the same time harsh.

[CeliVega]

Wanna know something?

Try writing any word and read it repeatedly. It will start sounding funny after a while. I don't know why, but it always happens! It's so strange.

Anyways, if you're not interested in that and want a word to sound funny the first time you read it, it's gotta be "cockpit"!

This reminds me of something interesting.

They said that if you repeated a word for numerous times in a go, your mind will start playing tricks on you......

There's this game a kid asked me to play back then.

I was told to repeat the word "mouse" for twenty times.

And then I was asked, "What does cat afraid of?"

Without thinking I answered "Mouse"  :shy:

[mmjmaske]

I love this thread! All the words sound so whimsical.

To contribute, my favorite word is "dongle". I can't NOT say the word dongle every time I have the chance to say dongle.

Dongle, dongle, dongle.

:grin: