laugh, chuckle, giggle, titter, snicker, guffaw, snort (2025)

Hello, everyone. I'd like to know the difference between laugh, chuckle, giggle, titter, snicker, guffaw and snort?
For snort, does it mean negatively?

Thanks a lot.

Hello annie 21.

I suspect that the definitions of these words in our dictionary will help answer your question.

For the questions that remain, please give us a sentence in which you think you might use one or more of these words, so we can discuss the differences in a particular context.

Thanks for your advise, Cagey.

I've already searched for the dictionary in your website. But I still can't differentiate the meaning. So the definition for oxford should be improved for the ESL learners.
For example:
Giggle means laugh in a nervous and silly way. So can the subject be anyone instead of girls or kids? And what does it mean:laugh in a nervous way?
And when we say laugh, is it more neutral?
For snort, no meaning for laugh, but my teacher told us it has the meaning of laughter. For example, snort of laughter.

So what really confuses me is the meaning. Since I'm a ESl learner, I don't know the differences if the dictionary doesn't provide us the context. That's way I ask my question here. So maybe someone can explain the differences by providing the appropriate contexts. Thanks a lot.
And Contexts are the following:

I can't help laughing,chuckle, giggling, titter, snicker, guffaw and snort

Really, here you're asking 7 questions, not one.

Each of these words (well, "snort" is a bit of an outlier, and "laugh" is special too - more on that in a second) are roughly synonymous in terms of meaning: they refer to the sounds made when one is amused.

But each one is associated with different kinds of laughter. A native speaker could easily act out each one for you, but it's hard to type out the sounds of laughter. They also connote or suggest different kinds of laughers - for instance, certain people are more likely to "guffaw" than "giggle" or "titter." With the range of your question, though, it would be hard for us to enumerate each of the particularities of the various kinds of laughter.

The most important thing is that, in this list, 6 terms are "marked" linguistically and one is "unmarked." The unmarked one - the "standard" one - is "laughter." All laughs can be called "laughter" or "laughing." Each of the other terms describes a special case or non-standard variety of laughter. So you are right that "laugh" is "neutral": it doesn't carry a particular extra meaning on its own.

I think you have to tackle all of the other words separately. It would help for you to look at a series of examples of how each one is used.

As Lucas-sp mentioned, laugh is the general term and the others are all different ways of laughing.
Someone who chuckles at a joke laughs a little.
To giggle is to laugh softly, often with the hand covering the mouth, and tends to be associated with silliness.
Tittering is very similar to giggling, but perhaps softer, sort of like the sound of many birds chirping together. In fact, it sometimes occurred with another birdlike sound, cooing.
To snicker at someone is to laugh briefly, often secretly (hand over mouth), and sarcastically.
To guffaw is to laugh loudly.
To snort is to laugh and suck in air at the same time, making a sound similar to the grunting of a pig.

This is just a general gloss of the terms. As the others mentioned, context is very important. Since you seem to love words, I highly recommend the following site: www.wordandphrase.info. If you type in the base form of the verb and don't get any examples, try using the simple past or the -ing form. You will see that most of the words you have asked about occur in fiction more than in an academic context. You will see examples in context. You will also see that there are other words for laugh that you have left out, e.g., chortle, cackle, snigger. Have fun exploring!

annie21 said:

Giggle means laugh in a nervous and silly way. So can the subject be anyone instead of girls or kids?

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Anyone can laugh in any of the ways you mentioned. However some would seem incongruous given our preconceptions of what people are like. A large, muscular man might seem odd if he tittered; it would seem normal for him to chuckle or guffaw.

annie21 said:

For snort, no meaning for laugh, but my teacher told us it has the meaning of laughter. For example, snort of laughter.

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To snort is to make a special sound. Some people snort when they laugh. You can easily find examples if you search online. Saying someone snorted often means that they were laughing but not always. If it's meant to express laughter it often means a laugh of derision: "The man snorted at the stupidity of his partner."

jmichaelm said:

Anyone can laugh in any of the ways you mentioned. However some would seem incongruous given our preconceptions of what people are like. A large, muscular man might seem odd if he tittered; it would seem normal for him to chuckle or guffaw.

To snort is to make a special sound. Some people snort when they laugh. You can easily find examples if you search online. Saying someone snorted often means that they were laughing but not always. If it's meant to express laughter it often means a laugh of derision: "The man snorted at the stupidity of his partner."

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Also, snorting takes place when people suppress laughter.

annie21 said:

Thank you all for the answers which greatly helped me in understanding all of these synonyms.

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The answers should have taught you that they are far from being synonyms.

Rover

Rover_KE said:

The answers should have taught you that they are far from being synonyms.

Rover

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It depends on how you define for synonyms.