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The definition of a comedy is a play, film or book that is light, funny and generally has a happy ending or any entertainment or amusement that is funny.

(noun)

An example of a comedy is Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
An example of a comedy is a show made up of joke telling.

See comedy in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun pl. comedies

Obsolete a drama or narrative with a happy ending or nontragic theme: Dante's Divine Comedy
1. any of various types of play or film with a more or less humorous treatment of characters and situation and a happy ending
2. such plays collectively
3. the branch of drama having to do with such plays
4. the writing, acting, or theoretical principles of this kind of drama
a novel or any narrative having a comic theme, tone, etc.
the comic element in a literary work, or in life
an amusing or comic event or sequence of events

Origin: ME & OFr comedie < L comoedia < Gr kōmōidia < kōmos, revel, carousal + aeidein, to sing: see ode

See comedy in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun pl. com·e·dies

a. A dramatic work that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone and that usually contains a happy resolution of the thematic conflict.
b. The genre made up of such works.
A literary or cinematic work of a comic nature or that uses the themes or methods of comedy.
Popular entertainment composed of jokes, satire, or humorous performance.
The art of composing or performing comedy.
A humorous element of life or literature: the human comedy of political campaigns.
A humorous occurrence.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English comedie

Origin: , from Medieval Latin cōmēdia

Origin: , from Latin cōmoedia

Origin: , from Greek kōmōidia

Origin: , from kōmōidos, comic actor

Origin: : kōmos, revel

Origin: + aoidos, singer (from aeidein, to sing; see wed-² in Indo-European roots)

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