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facetious

/fəˈsiːʃəs/adjective

Joking about serious matters in a way that seems out of place.

Example sentences

  • “Stop being facetious; this is a real emergency.”
  • “When I asked about his grades, he gave a facetious answer about aliens.”

Not a synonym for 'funny': it criticizes the timing, not the joke. 'I was being facetious' is a standard way to walk back a remark taken seriously.

Featured as word of the day on June 28, 2026.

Synonyms for facetious

Antonyms

Often confused with facetious

facetious vs fictitious

Find it in: Advanced English words.

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