- fun
- fun, jest, sport, game, play are comparable when they denote something (as an activity, an utterance, or a form of expression) that provides diversion or amusement or is intended to arouse laughter.Fun implies amusement or an engagement in what interests as an end in itself, or it may apply to what provides this amusement or interest and then often additionally implies a propensity for laughing or for finding a usually genial cause for laughter or amusement{
had such a zest for everything and thought it all such fun— Rolvaag
}{make living more fun, life more complete— Printers' Ink
}{a man full of fun
}Jest (see also JOKE) is comparable to fun chiefly in fixed phrases (as in jest) or when applied to activity or utterance not to be taken seriously. In such uses, however, jest commonly carries a stronger implication of ridicule or hoaxing{a man given to making his most significant remarks in jest
}{make jest of very serious problems
}Sport (see also under PLAY vb 1) is often interchangeable with fun{there is a good deal of sport in many serious activities
}or jest{play a trick on a friend for the sport of it
}But its most common use is in certain idiomatic phrases (as make sport and in sport) in which it suggests an intent to induce amusement or provoke laughter by putting someone or something up to gentle or malicious ridicule{make sport of a suggestion
}{make a good deal of sport out of his friend's misfortune
}{teasing begun in sport ended in an ugly brawl
}Game as a close synonym of fun survives chiefly in the phrase to make game of where, like sport in the corresponding idiom, it usually carries a suggestion of mischief or malice and implies a certain ridicule{make game of an unfortunate rival
}In more general related use game (see also games under ATHLETICS) may apply to an activity carried on in a spirit of fun{there have been few poets more successful ... in having fun with poetry. To Mr. Frost it is a pleasant game— Leary
}Play, which stresses in all senses an opposition to earnest, may replace fun or sport or jest when a thoroughly innocuous implication of lack of earnestness or seriousness is desired{pretend to spank a child in play
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
