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Laughter vs Chuckle - What's the difference?

laughter | chuckle |

As nouns the difference between laughter and chuckle

is that laughter is the sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound while chuckle is a quiet laugh.

As a verb chuckle is

to laugh quietly or inwardly.

laughter

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(wikipedia laughter) (en-noun)
  • The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1899, author=(Stephen Crane)
    • , title=, chapter=1 , passage=There was some laughter , and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town.}}
  • A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the laughing face, particularly of the lips, and of the whole body, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs.
  • * (Thomas Browne) (1605-1682)
    • The act of laughter , which is a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves.
  • * (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)
    • Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter .
  • (label) A reason for merriment.

    • Related terms

    * laugh

    chuckle

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A quiet laugh.

    • Synonyms

    * chortle * giggle * snigger * titter

    Verb

  • To laugh quietly or inwardly.
  • (archaic) To make the sound of a chicken; to cluck.
  • (archaic) To call together, or call to follow, as a hen calls her chickens; to cluck.
    • (Dryden)
  • (archaic) To fondle; to indulge or pamper.
    • (Dryden)

    Synonyms

    * See also