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• double entendre
  double entendre

  noun

  a double meaning.
• double-entendre
  double-entendre

  A word or expression that has two different meanings (in French, double-entendre means “double meaning”), one of which is often bawdy or indelicate. A double-entendre is found in this sentence: “A nudist camp is simply a place where men and women meet to air their differences.”

double entendre

American  

[duhb-uhl ahn-tahn-druh, -tahnd, doo-blahn-tahn-dr^uh] / ˈdʌb əl ɑnˈtɑn drə, -ˈtɑnd, du blɑ̃ˈtɑ̃ drə /

noun

• double entendres
  plural

1. a double meaning.

2. a word or expression used in a given context so that it can be understood in two ways, especially when one meaning is risqué.

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double entendre British  

/ ˈdʌbəl ɑːnˈtɑːndrə, dubl ɑ̃tɑ̃drə, -ˈtɑːnd /

noun

1. a word, phrase, etc, that can be interpreted in two ways, esp one having one meaning that is indelicate

2. the type of humour that depends upon such ambiguity

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double-entendre Cultural  

1. A word or expression that has two different meanings (in French, double-entendre means “double meaning”), one of which is often bawdy or indelicate. A double-entendre is found in this sentence: “A nudist camp is simply a place where men and women meet to air their differences.”

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Usage

What else does double entendre mean? A double entendre is a word or expression that can be understood in two ways, especially when one meaning is risqué. If you've ever cracked a that's what she said joke, you've created a double entendre.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• double entendres
  plural

Etymology

Origin of double entendre

From obsolete French, dating back to 1665–75; see origin at double, intend

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

double entendre double-entendre

“Bab’s Uvula”: This first-season skit is filled with the kind of double entendre and quick wit that carved a path for the best of “SNL’s” skits.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2024

“I mean, it has to fit with secular society. It’s got to have some double entendre about the Gospel.”

From Washington Times ● Aug. 18, 2023

"I'm starving," Emma says, which isn't quite a double entendre.

From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2023

It’s kind of a double entendre, because we’re second-generation physicians.

From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2022

Afterward, they regroup in the living room for board games and goofy improvisation contests, all free of profanity and even double entendre.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

The theme is a heist to steal the draft, and the catch phrase, “The house always wins,” is a double-entendre reference to a Las Vegas casino and the Rams House.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2022

Her double-entendre malapropisms — “don’t misconscrewme” — suggested a sophisticated command of the English language, and as she worked to build her own career, she resisted assimilating to American expectations.

From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2022

The double-entendre headline, for Pete and Chasten Buttigieg, is "First Family."

From Fox News ● May 3, 2019

Early protesters appeared, symbolically, on the Tehran thoroughfare renamed for the country’s revolution, in 1979, adding a subtle double-entendre to the new women’s crusade.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 14, 2018

This side of the linguistic inventiveness of childhood, with its double-entendre, its puns, its folk-etymologies, its keen discernment of hidden resemblances and analogies, deserves more study than it has apparently received.

From The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day by Alexander F. Chamberlain

Related Words

• innuendo
• pun