pun

American  

[puhn] / pʌn /

noun

• puns
  plural

1. the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.

2. the word or phrase used in this way.

---

verb (used without object)

• puns,
  present (3rd person singular)
• punned,
  past participle,  past
• punning
  present participle

1. to make puns.

pun ¹ British  

/ pʌn /

noun

1. the use of words or phrases to exploit ambiguities and innuendoes in their meaning, usually for humorous effect; a play on words. An example is: "Ben Battle was a soldier bold, And used to war's alarms: But a cannonball took off his legs, So he laid down his arms." (Thomas Hood)

---

verb

1. (intr) to make puns

pun ² British  

/ pʌn /

verb

1. (tr) to pack (earth, rubble, etc) by pounding

---

pun Cultural  

1. A humorous substitution of words that are alike in sound but different in meaning (see double-entendre), as in this passage from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll:

   “And how many hours a day did you do lessons?” said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.

   “Ten hours the first day,” said the Mock Turtle, “nine the next, and so on.”

   “What a curious plan!” exclaimed Alice.

   “That's the reason they're called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.”

---

Usage

What is a pun? A pun is a humorous use of words with multiple meanings or words that sound similar but have different meanings, as in The gravekeeper buried the evidence under his desk. There are two ways to make a pun. The first involves using a word with more than one meaning to create humorous wordplay, as in The dentist put his assistants through some drills. A drill is both a tool a dentist uses and a training exercise. The second way is to use similar sounding words with different meanings to make humorous wordplay, as in The clown helped the children across the street. It was a kind jester. Here, jester, a type of clown, is used instead of the similar sounding gesture, meaning an action or a courtesy.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• punner
  noun
• punless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• puns
  plural

Participles

• punning
  present
• punned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• pun
  simple
• puns
  simple
• have punned
  perfect
• has punned
  perfect
• am punning
  progressive
• are punning
  progressive
• is punning
  progressive
• have been punning
  perfect progressive
• has been punning
  perfect progressive

Past

• punned
  simple
• had punned
  perfect
• was punning
  progressive
• were punning
  progressive
• had been punning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will pun
  simple
• will have punned
  perfect
• will be punning
  progressive
• will have been punning
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of pun

First recorded in 1655–65; perhaps special use of pun, variant (now dialectal) of pound ¹, in the sense “to mistreat (words)”

Compare meaning

How does pun compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• pun vs. play on words

Explanation

A pun is a play on words. If a bird flying overhead takes a poop on the cake you’re carrying, you could say “Isn’t that just the icing on the cake!” But only if you want to be punny. Friend of the double entendre and other witticisms, a pun is a comedic phrase that plays off of the sounds and double meanings of words. Puns can be quite clever, but often come off as silly, cheeseball attempts at humor. That's probably why any good comedian will tell you that "a pun is a short quip followed by a long groan."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pun puns punned punning

That’s no longer true: A limited number of companies now drive most of its returns as they fuel the buildout of artificial intelligence, and an even smaller handful “chip” in the rest — pun intended.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

The incident has been dubbed 'Clicky Ponting' - a pun on the name of former Australia captain Ricky Ponting.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

As criticism erupted over the tagline, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” for drawing a pun in reference to the actress’s blond hair and blue eyes, the president boosted the brand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

Still, even when dealing with corpses, Walker’s characters can deftly deliver a one-liner or a bad pun when the mood needs lightening; she doesn’t really think along drama versus comedy lines.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026

That’s right, Big Mama Bear is always showing the whole world how to, no pun intended, find its bearings.

From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein

One, Todd Kapostasy’s “Bong Voyage,” about the rise and fall and rise of artisanal glassblower Jason Harris, is narrated by one of his creations and includes such dumb puns as “fine piece of glass.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026

I’ll take it easy on the puns from here.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026

Then there’s Deflategate, which involved underinflated balls and led to a suspension for Brady and some of the worst puns ever made.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 28, 2026

Filled with irreverent puns and ludicrous gadgets, the film boasts a vibrant and tactile style of animation that makes this a silly and frothy treat even adults will appreciate.

From Salon ● Dec. 19, 2025

She was teasing me about Neil right in front of Sahil, and she was using those puns to torture me.

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

Parton punned, adding, “That was such a baaad joke.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2023

Perhaps the Anthropocene has already become an anthropomeme: punned and pimped into stuplimity, its presence in popular discourse often just a virtue signal that merely mandates the user to proceed with the work of consumption.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 1, 2016

He created sentences that punned with double meanings, and arranged elaborate pranks for his sister and friends — these often involved water balloons.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2014

Perhaps he still smarted at the “Joys and Sarris” subtitle of Kael’s 1963 screed; she had punned on a mispronunciation of his name, which rhymes with Harris, not Doris.

From Time ● Jun. 21, 2012

See the name punned on in Night dcccli.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 08 by Sir Richard Francis Burton

For many years American Jewish writing seemed to be all about sons—sons launched from Chicago, Brooklyn and the Bronx, sons of overprotective mothers, comics punning on “the son also rises.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025

Wait a minute, was the New York Times punning with its Wordle on Veteran’s Day?

From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2022

In 2007, they made a series of posters for the New York Art Book Fair, with punning slogans like “What’s the plan, Uzbekistan? I’m your man, Azerbaijan!” or “Men Are From Murmansk/Women Are From Vilnius.”

From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022

Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Jean Clawed, Dolph Lundgren’s Svengeance and Danny Trejo’s Stronghold round out the punning group, whose lair is hidden beneath a record store cleverly called Criminal Records.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 28, 2022

There were heraldic devices worked or stamped on the sides—enormous Mack eagles with two heads perhaps, or wyverns, or lances, or oak trees, or punning signs which referred to the names of the owners.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Related Words

• double entendre
• joke
• quip