facetious
Americanadjective
-
not meant to be taken seriously or literally.
a facetious remark.
-
amusing; humorous.
-
lacking serious intent; concerned with something nonessential, amusing, or frivolous.
a facetious person.
adjective
-
characterized by levity of attitude and love of joking
a facetious person
-
jocular or amusing, esp at inappropriate times
facetious remarks
Usage
A term labeled Facetious in this dictionary is one that is used consciously for humorous or playful effect.
Synonym Usage
See humorous 1.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of facetious
First recorded in 1585–95; from Middle French facecieux, facetieux, from facetie “a jest,” from Latin facētia “a jest, witticism” ( see facetiae) + -ious
Compare meaning
How does facetious compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Don’t take a facetious comment seriously because it’s supposed to be funny. Anything facetious is a joke. If you've just won a hotdog-eating contest and someone asks if you'd like to go out for burgers, they’re probably being facetious. If you forget how to spell facetious, notice that it has all five vowels in a row. The word facetious comes from the French facétie, “joke,” and it has come to describe a joke with a little drop of sarcasm. It used to simply mean “funny and witty,” but now it often implies that someone is being inappropriately funny about a serious topic.
Vocabulary lists containing facetious
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With such a heavy subject matter, Clunes says he deals with it by being a "little facetious", despite taking his work seriously.
From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2026
Bong walks a delicate line between being facetious and pulling his punches, and the script does sometimes fall to the latter side with some of its more trite resistance messaging.
From Salon ● Mar. 7, 2025
It’s not entirely clear whether Barr was being serious, or if she was being facetious and purposely saying something absurd to prove some kind of point about “truth.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
“I’m grateful that there is still room in the world for something facetious to occur now and then.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
French composers of the melodramatic grand opera school -Jules Massenet and Charles Gounod, for example - were just as much a target for his often facetious pen.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
