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If someone makes a ridiculous remark about your risible muscles, he or she is not necessarily deriding your physique. Risible can also mean "associated with laughter," so risible muscles can simply be the ones used for laughing. (You've also got a set of risorius muscles around your mouth that help you smile.) Next time you find something laughable, tip your hat to ridēre, the Latin verb meaning "to laugh" that gave us risible (and ridiculous and deride, by the way).

Examples of risible in a Sentence

The suggestion was downright risible. a risible comment that made the whole class laugh

Recent Examples on the Web One of their principal complaints — that statehood represents a partisan power grab by Democrats — was risible in light of U.S. history. — Washington Post, "Even the GOP’s three best arguments against D.C. statehood don’t stand up to scrutiny," 29 Mar. 2021 The notion that Ocasio-Cortez is apprehensive about government subsidies is, of course, risible. — David Harsanyi, National Review, "AOC’s Terrible Minimum-Wage Argument," 3 Mar. 2021 In the same year, Jordan Barrack was sentenced to 40 hours community service and a £400 fine for the risible offense of posting a photo of a policeman with penises stenciled over it on Snapchat. — Iona Italia, Washington Examiner, "How British cops became the literal speech police," 4 Mar. 2021 Still, the gravamen of Trump’s anti-McConnell statement, making the case that the Kentucky Republican is a political disaster compared with the masterly Trump, is risible. — Rich Lowry, National Review, "Advantage Trump in the GOP Civil War — for Now," 19 Feb. 2021 Launching a new product with such abject online incompetence is risible for an administration that prided itself on its technological brains. — Scientific American, "Obamacare Web site mocked by, yes, insurance company," 20 Nov. 2013 What was so risible wasn’t Kardashian West’s defensive posture; many of us have, in the past year, sprinkled similar apologia into tales of our own COVID-19-era outings. — Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, "Kim Kardashian and the Year of Unchecked Privilege-Checking," 23 Dec. 2020 The justices unanimously found no merit in the risible lawsuit that Texas petitioned to file against four battleground states won by Biden. — Andrew C. Mccarthy, National Review, "The Courts Hold the Line," 17 Dec. 2020 Annual property taxes are risible, resembling other states’ monthly bills. — Washington Post, "Delaware is famous for corporations, chemicals, chickens — and now, finally, a president," 16 Nov. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'risible.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.