wordplay
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of wordplay
Explanation
When you use language in a witty, clever way, you use wordplay. A pun like "the chicken crossing the road was poultry in motion" is an example of wordplay. Wordplay, a word that dates from the mid-1850s, simply means "playing with words." Besides puns, wordplay includes verbal games like double entendres and literary techniques such as meaningful character names — like the werewolf Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter books, whose last name comes from "wolf" in Latin, lupus. Another type of wordplay is a "Tom Swifty," a phrase linking an adverb to a sentence with a pun: "I hate shellfish," she said crabbily.
Vocabulary lists containing wordplay
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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.
Despite this, Wardle and a team of collaborators recently launched Parseword, a wordplay game inspired by Wardle's attempts to get to grips with cryptic crossword puzzles.
From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026
“What doesn’t kill you calls you six months later” — that’s about as clean as Nashville wordplay gets.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 25, 2026
How wordplay and devilish games of deduction can be as satisfying to the soul as a song.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Does Ellie have any sort of sense of wordplay?
From Salon • Nov. 2, 2025
That’s the kind of wordplay that a preschooler simply doesn’t understand.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
