幽默(yōu mò) - humorous, funny; a sense of humour in Mandarin

幽默 (yōumò) is one of the words Chinese borrowed by sound rather than by meaning: it was coined in the 1920s as a phonetic rendering of the English word "humour", and the characters chosen (幽, "quiet, subtle" and 默, "silent") were picked for their sound, not because they add up to "funny" on their own.

As an adjective it describes a person, a style or a remark as funny in an easy, clever way, closer to "witty" than to slapstick: 他很幽默 (tā hěn yōumò), "he's very funny/witty". As a noun, usually in 幽默感 (yōumò gǎn, "sense of humour"), it names the quality itself.

英式幽默 (Yīngshì yōumò), "British humour", is a phrase Chinese speakers reach for often, usually meaning dry and understated rather than loud, so it is a useful word to know both ways round.