Cachinnation
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Noun
- Loud, convulsive laughter.
Example Sentences
“Cachinnation spilled out of the movie theater showing the recent comedy release.”
“We tried to remain calm through the ceremony, but my friend and I burst into cachinnation when we caught each other’s eyes.”
“The hoots coming from the monkey habitat sounded almost like the cachinnation of a group of children.”
Word Origin
Latin, early 19th century
Why this word?
There are so many synonyms for “laughter”: “chucking,” “giggling,” “tittering,” “howling,” and “hooting,” just to name a few. And across the world, there are countless translations for laughter, too. In Afrikaans, it’s “gelag.” In Hindi, “hansee” means “laughter,” and in Korean, they say “us-eum.” “Smijeh” is laughter in Croatian, and it’s “latter” in Norwegian. While laughter is universal, if you want to describe a specific kind of laughter — a loud, uncontrollable, convulsive laughter — that’s “cachinnation.”