What does “riso” mean in Italian — rice or laughter?

Riso is one of Italian’s neatest coincidences: it means “rice,” from the Greek oryza by way of Latin, but it’s also the noun for “a laugh” or “laughter,” formed from ridere (“to laugh”). Same spelling, same sound, two completely unrelated words. In this pronunciation-challenge clip, riso is one of the trickier words thrown at the speaker — not for how it sounds, but for which meaning a listener assumes first.

Context almost always sorts the two out: del riso on a menu is rice, while un bel riso or the saying il riso fa buon sangue (“laughter makes good blood,” i.e. laughing is good for you) is unmistakably about laughing. It’s a reminder that Italian, like English, has its own share of true homographs hiding in plain, everyday words.