pun
Americannoun
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puns
plural
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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.
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the word or phrase used in this way.
verb (used without object)
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puns,
present (3rd person singular)
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punned,
past participle, past
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punning
present participle
noun
verb
verb
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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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punsimple
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punssimple
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have punnedperfect
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has punnedperfect
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am punningprogressive
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are punningprogressive
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is punningprogressive
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have been punningperfect progressive
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has been punningperfect progressive
Past
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punnedsimple
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had punnedperfect
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was punningprogressive
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were punningprogressive
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had been punningperfect progressive
Future
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:
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."
Vocabulary lists containing pun
Literary Devices & Figures of Speech - Introductory
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Reading: Literature - Literary Devices & Figures of Speech - Middle School
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The AP English Exam: Rhetorical and Literary Terms 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There’s a really bad pun in the chorus, which was intentional: “Cry me an ocean of one-liners.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
And the term "Yangote" – a pun in the Hausa language essentially meaning "we all have a share now" - has been trending on social media.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
You would also be relying on the restaurant management not to spill the beans — apologies once again for the pun — to regular customers and employees.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Lifts of all sorts are, no pun intended, on the rise: forehead and brow lifts up 29 percent; arm lifts and neck lifts both up 21 percent.
From Slate ● Sep. 2, 2026
Most of the other young Fellows were dyed-in-the-tweed intellectuals who liked to pun in Greek.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
Species have been named for ex-spouses, for excrement, for wordplay and puns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
"I'm a physics teacher and I've got a terrible sense of humour," he confesses, so he particularly likes it if the students pick up on his fondness for corny puns.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
The subject provides a bumper crop of puns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
A few steps down the street, the late Juan Delgadillo’s Snow Cap Drive-In is still in business, full of bright colors and silly puns, now run by his son, John.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
In October, he wrote a funny letter, full of puns and one-liners, to Barbara, at college in Minnesota.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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
The Sinner was punned into Repentance by the former, as in the latter nothing is more usual than to see a Hero weeping and quibbling for a dozen Lines together.
From The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Joseph Addison
The penchant for punning titles hasn’t diminished, however.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Ms. Goldstein’s punning premise would be meaningless in the languages of Pascal and Kant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
Wait a minute, was the New York Times punning with its Wordle on Veteran’s Day?
From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2022
Both attended what law school students called “bar review,” a punning excuse for socializing that takes place at a local watering hole.
From New York Times ● Sep. 24, 2021
That’s why the show is loaded with so many “adult” elements, the constant punning and pop culture references like Monsterpiece Theater or the Samuel Beckett parody “Waiting for Elmo.”
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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