Match these “laughing” words with their descriptions.
1)Giggle 2) Guffaw 3) Cackle 4)Chuckle
a)To laugh quietly to oneself
b)To laugh loudly
c)To give a small laugh without opening the lips
d)To make a shrill sound while laughing.
Note : This is homework, but not for me.
1=c
2=b
3=d
4=a
Or, y’know, hit Wiktionary.
1)Giggle 2) Guffaw 3) Cackle 4)Chuckle
a)To laugh quietly to oneself
2
b)To laugh loudly
4
c)To give a small laugh without opening the lips
1
d)To make a shrill sound while laughing.
3
Agreed, these are the same answers I would’ve put down.
I am not convinced these are all very good definitions.
Applying a process of elimination:
A guffgaw is definitely loud, so guffaw=(b)
A chuckle is quiet and private. Both (a) and © describe it quite well, but perhaps © is more accurate.
**
Giggles** are stereotypically made by little girls. They can be loud or fairly quiet, but are typically shrill (though I am not sure that that is their defining characteristic), so (d). (And nothing else seems to fit giggle.)
A cackle is a harsh, mean sounding laugh, often quite loud. I do not think any of the descriptions fit. Certainly not (a) (which is the one left over).
1=c
2=b
3=d
4=a
We seem to disagree so I guess you need to go to an actual dictionary <snicker><chortle>
Yes, I agree.
A giggle might be interpreted as “high-pitched” but not shrill. The annoyance factor suggests it’s cackle, which does not really fit anywhere else.
You don’t need to keep the mouth closed to giggle, but it’s the best fit.
Yup. A giggle and a chuckle are almost the same, except that the giggle is more childish and can go on for longer. Neither chuckle nor giggle are necessarily private. Guffaw is the only one with a really good definition there.
I referred Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary, still couldn’t conclude.Hence posted it here.
Could be quite confusing for students.
Agreed with the majority above, but I had to think for a second about “giggle” and “chuckle” and trying to match them to “laugh quietly to oneself” and “to give a small laugh without opening the lips.” I thought they could go pretty much either way, but then I thought about how I most often encountered the word “chuckle” and it generally was in the context of laughing quietly to oneself.
I didn’t consider giggling as being shrill, so “d” was never in the running for me for that one, but now that I think about it, I suppose an argument can be made for that. Typically, though, I think of a giggle as a quiet “tee-hee” type laugh. And the best fits were “a” and “c.”
As far as I’m concerned, a ‘cackle’ is an evil laugh, something stereotypically associated with (female) witches and always done at the misfortune of others. Saying someone ‘cackled’ is never a compliment. The evil aspect of the cackle is more descriptive than everything else about it, and a good definition should mention that.