Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Chuckle |
ChuckleNoun1. A soft partly suppressed laugh. Verb1. Laugh quietly or with restraint. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "chuckle" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1657. (references) |
Synonyms: ChuckleSynonyms: chortle (v), laugh softly (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Amusement | Smile, simper, smirk; grin, grin like a Cheshire cat; mock, laugh in one's sleeve; laugh, laugh outright; giggle, titter, crow, snicker, chuckle, cackle; burst out, burst into a fit of laughter; shout, split, roar. |
Giggle, titter, snicker, crow, cheer, chuckle, shout; horse laugh, belly laugh, hearty laugh; guffaw; burst of laughter, fit of laughter, shout of laughter, roar of laughter, peal of laughter; cachinnation; Kentish fire; tiger. | |
Boasting | Exult, crow, crow over, neigh, chuckle, triumph; throw up one's cap; talk big, se faire valoir, faire claquer son fouet, take merit to oneself, make a merit of, sing Io triumphe, holloa before one is out of the wood. |
Imbecility Folly | Weak headed, addle headed, puzzle headed, blunder headed, muddle headed, muddy headed, pig headed, beetle headed, buffle headed, chuckle headed, mutton headed, maggoty headed, grossheaded; beef headed, fat witted, fat-headed. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Chuckle |
| English words defined with "chuckle": Chuckled, Chuckling ♦ To hug one's self. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Perhaps a quiet chuckle. (Transformers; writing credit: George Arthur Bloom; Doug Booth) At least you'll have a chuckle or two. (Midnight Lace; writing credit: Janet Green; Ivan Goff) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Remember, I called heads, he said with a chuckle, and heads it is!. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Man laughing a short chuckle. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | As the sparrow had its trill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so had I my chuckle or suppressed warble which he might hear out of my nest |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Chuckle" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 85.31% of the time. "Chuckle" is used about 211 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 85.31% | 180 | 23,046 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 13.27% | 28 | 65,706 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.42% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 211 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "chuckle": chuckle-chuckle, chuckle-gobble, chuckle-head. | |
Ending with "chuckle": chuckle-chuckle. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
chuckle | 52 |
chuckle candy | 17 |
chuckle brother | 10 |
chuckle rose | 5 |
chuckle clown | 5 |
today chuckle | 4 |
chuckle j | 3 |
chuckle patch | 3 |
cheese chuckle | 2 |
chuckle head | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "chuckle"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | turfulloj (bluster, fume), turfullim (bluster, chortle), nënqeshje (sneer), nënqesh (sneer), i madh (bally, big, black, bouncing, capacious, capital, chunking, close, grand, great, gross, intense, large, lumping, major, massive, mighty, pelting, thumping, vast, vasty, voluminous, whacking, whaling). (various references) | |
Arabic | قوقأ للدجاج, ضحكة مكتومة (petit rire), ضحك بينه و بين نفسه. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | сподавен смях (chortle), хихикам се, кудкудякане (cackle, chuck), кудкудякам (cackle), кискане (chortle), непохватен (artless, awkward, bumbling, clumsy, gawky, heavy, lubberly, two-fisted, uncouth, ungainly, unhandy, unskilful), злорадствувам (gloat), подсмивам се (sneer, snicker, sniggle). (various references) | |
Chinese | 微笑 (smile, Smiled, smiling), ''笑 . (various references) | |
Czech | chichotat se (titter), chichotání (snigger, titter), chichot (titter), potlaèovaný smích, pochichtávat se. (various references) | |
Farsi | پیش خودخندیدن , بادهان بسته خندیدن . (various references) | |
Finnish | nauraa partaansa (chuckle to oneself, laugh up one's sleeve, snicker, snigger). (various references) | |
French | glousser (chortle). (various references) | |
German | kichern (cackle, giggle, snicker, snigger, titter), jauchzen (cheer, exult, rejoice, to cheer), glucksen (chortle, gurgle, to chuggle). (various references) | |
Greek | κρυφογελώ (snicker, snigger), καγχάζω ελαφρώσ, καγχάζω (guffaw), συγκρατημένο γέλιο, γελώ από μέσα μου, αθόρυβο γέλιο. (various references) | |
Hebrew | לצחקק (chortle, giggle, titter), צחוק מאופק, צחקוק (chortle, giggle, snigger). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kuncogás (chortle, giggle, snicker, snigger, titter). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tertawa kecil, tergelak-gelak, bergelak-gelak. (various references) | |
Italian | sogghignare (grin, sneer), riso soffocato, ridacchiare (giggle, snicker, snigger, titter). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 含み笑い (giggle, smile, suppressed laugh). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ふくみわらい (giggle, smile, suppressed laugh). (various references) | |
Korean | 킬킬 웃음. (various references) | |
Manx | geareyfeagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ucklechay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | cacarejo (cackle, chuck, cluck, clucking, gabble), cacarejar (cackle, chuck, cluck, keckle), volumoso (big, corpulent, fat, large, lumping, thick, voluminous), soltar um riso abafado, risada alta, rir por entre dentes, rir abafado, palerma (batty, dolt, gawky, goof, hawbuck, log, loggerhead, lummox, mope, nincompoop, noddy), grosso (bulky, corpulent, crass, fat, gross, thick), desajeitado (awkward, backhanded, blundering, boorish, bulky, bumbling, cloddish, clownish, clumsy, cubbish, floppy, fumbling, gawky, graceless, hawbuck, hobbledehoy, homely, hulking, ill-favored, ill-favoured, ill-mannered, inexpert, left-handed, lout, loutish, low-bred, lubber, lubberly, maladroit, muff, shiftless, uncouth, ungainly, ungraceful, unhandy, unskilful, unwieldy, wooden). (various references) | |
Romanian | cotcodãci (cackle, chatter, chuck, clack), cloncãnit (cluck), chicoti (chortle, giggle, snicker, snigger, titter), chicotealã (giggle), chema (ask, call, call down, call up, challenge, conjure, convene, convoke, entreat, hail, muster, page, ring, shout, signify, summon), râde pe înfundate, mângâia (caress, chuck, comfort, cosset, delight, fondle, pander to, Pat, pet, relieve, smooth, solace, soothe, stroke), jubila (chortle, Jubilate). (various references) | |
Russian | радость (gladness, glee, joy, mirth, rejoicing), радоваться (joy, rejoice, rejoice at, rejoice in), хихикать (cackle, giggle, snicker, snickered, snigger, tehee, titter), хихиканье (cackle, giggle, tehee), кудахтать (cackle, cluck), кудахтанье (cackle, chuck, cluck), неуклюжий (bulky, bumbling, cack-handed, cloddish, clumsy, clunky, cubbish, gangly, gawky, goon, hamfisted, ham-fisted, heavy-handed, hulking, left handed, lout, lubberly, maladroit, oafish, splay, two-fisted, uncouth, ungainly, unhandy, unskilful, unwieldy), большой (big, builky, bulky, chunking, clunky, considerable, feature length, goodly, grand, great, gross, healthy, high, large, major, man-sized, walloping), посмеиваться смешок, посмеиваться, довольный смех. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | cerekati se (giggle, tehee, titter), cerekanje (giggle, tehee), prigušeno smejanje, prigušeno se smejati. (various references) | |
Spanish | risita (giggle, snicker, tee-hee). (various references) | |
Swedish | skrocka (chuck, cluck). (various references) | |
Thai | การหัวเราะเบาๆ, หัวเราะเบาๆ. (various references) | |
Turkish | kendi kendine gülmek, kendi kendine gülme, kıkırdamak (chortle, giggle, titter, twitter), kıkırdama (chortle, giggle, titter, twitter), kıkır kıkır gülmek (chortle, giggle, titter), kıkır kıkır gülme (chuckling, giggling), gurklamak, gurklama (chuck), anne tavuğun civcivlerini çağırması. (various references) | |
Turkmen | pykyrdamak (seethe), яykyrdamak, hykyrdy (giggle, laugh), hykyrdamak (giggle). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | усміхатися (smile, sneer), реготати (cackle, nicker, scream), хихикання (cackle, giggle, snigger, tee-hee, tehee, titter), тихо сміятися, кудкудакати (cackle, clabber, cluck, gabble, keckle), кудкудакання (cackle, chuck, cluck, gabble), кахкати, кахкання, глеготати, глеготання, придушений сміх, посміюватися. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tiếng cười khúc khích (giggle). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "chuckle": chuckled, chucklehead, chuckleheaded, chuckleheads, chuckler, chucklers, chuckles, chucklesome. (additional references) | |
| |
"Chuckle" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Chikulu, choccie, chuck'em, chuckl, cuckel, Huckel, Kickle, kuckle, Mcluckie, Schucksen, shuckle, Shukle. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "chuckle" (pronounced khu"kul) |
| 4 | -u" k u l | buckle, Huckle, suckle, knuckle, muckle, ruckle. |
| 3 | -k u l | acoustical, aeronautical, agrochemical, allegorical, alphabetical, analytical, anarchical, anatomical, ankle, anthropological, antithetical, apolitical, archaeological, archeological, article, astrological, astronautical, astronomical, asymmetrical, atypical, autobiographical, barnacle, biblical, bicycle, bifocal, biochemical, biographical, biological, biomedical, biotechnological, botanical, brickle, cackle, categorical, cervical, chemical, Chronicle, chronological, circle, classical, clavicle, clerical, clinical, comical, commonsensical, conical, coracle, cortical, crackle, critical, cubicle, cuticle, cycle, cyclical, cylindrical, cynical, debacle, dermatological, diabolical, diacritical, dialectical, domical, ducal, ecclesiastical, ecological, economical, ecumenical, egotistical, electrical, electrochemical, electromechanical, elliptical, empirical, encircle, encyclical, epidemiological, epochal, equivocal, eschatological, ethical, ethnical, etymological, evangelical, fanatical, farcical, fecal, fickle, fiscal, focal, follicle, freckle, galenical, geographical, geological, geometrical, geophysical, geopolitical, gonococcal, grackle, grammatical, granduncle, graphical, gynecological, hackle, heckle, helical, heretical, heterocercal, hierarchical, historical, honeysuckle, hypercritical, hypocritical, hypothetical, hysterical, icicle, identical, ideological, illogical, immunological, impractical, Sokol, sparkle, speckle, spectacle, spherical, sprinkle, statistical, stereotypical, stickle, strategical, surgical, symmetrical, tabernacle, tackle, tactical, technical, technological, teleological, tentacle, testicle, theatrical, theological, inimical, ironical, jackal, lackadaisical, lexical, liturgical, local, logical, logistical, lyrical, magical, maniacal, mathematical, matriarchal, mechanical, medical, meikle, metallurgical, metaphorical, metaphysical, meteorological, methodical, methodological, metrical, Mickle, miracle, monocle, morphological, motorcycle, musical, mystical, mythical, mythological, nautical, neoclassical, neurological, nickel, Nickle, Nicol, nonelectrical, nonpolitical, nonsensical, nonsurgical, nontechnical, numerical, obstacle, ontological, optical, Oracle, oratorical, ornithological, paradoxical, particle, pathological, patriarchal, pedagogical, periodical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, pharmacological, philosophical, phonological, photochemical, physical, physiological, pickle, pinnacle, polemical, political, pontifical, popsicle, practical, preclinical, problematical, prototypical, psychical, psychological, pumpernickel, puritanical, quizzical, rabbinical, radical, radiological, ramshackle, rankle, rascal, receptacle, reciprocal, recycle, rhetorical, runkle, sabbatical, satirical, semiclassical, semicylindrical, semitropical, serological, shackle, shekel, sickle, skeptical, sociological, theoretical, tickle, tinkle, topical, toxicological, trickle, tricycle, tropical, twinkle, typical, typographical, tyrannical, umbilical, uncle, uncritical, uneconomical, unequivocal, unethical, unicycle, unshackle, untypical, vehicle, vertical, viatical, virological, vocal, whimsical, Winkle, wrinkle, zoological. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-c-e-h-k-l-u" | |
-1 letter: huckle. | |
-2 letters: check, chuck, cluck, culch. | |
-3 letters: clue, cuke, heck, huck, hulk, lech, leku, luce, luck. | |
-4 letters: cel, cue, ecu, elk, hue, kue, lek, leu, uke. | |
-5 letters: eh, el, he, uh. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-c-e-h-k-l-u" | |
+1 letter: chuckled, chuckler, chuckles. | |
+2 letters: chuckhole, chucklers. | |
+3 letters: chuckholes. | |
+4 letters: chucklehead, chucklesome, shuttlecock, uncheckable. | |
+5 letters: chuckleheads, shuttlecocks. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
