double entendre
noun
a double meaning.
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double entendre
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double-entendre
double-entendreA 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
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double entendres
plural
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a double meaning.
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a word or expression used in a given context so that it can be understood in two ways, especially when one meaning is risqué.
double entendre
British
/ ˈdʌbəl ɑːnˈtɑːndrə, dubl ɑ̃tɑ̃drə, -ˈtɑːnd /
noun
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a word, phrase, etc, that can be interpreted in two ways, esp one having one meaning that is indelicate
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the type of humour that depends upon such ambiguity
double-entendre
Cultural
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
Etymology
Origin of double entendre
From obsolete French, dating back to 1665–75; see origin at double, intend
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:
Hoping to give her blessing and her mother’s wedding ring to her son — “The Family Stone” remains a very clever double entendre — Sybil’s plans are quickly thwarted by this realization.
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2025
The title “Foe” is also a pun, though the rest of the movie is not so offensively bad as that double entendre; it’s just so lacking in substance and momentum as to be entirely inert.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2023
“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
It’s kind of a double entendre, because we’re second-generation physicians.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2022
“You look a little . . . Pardon the double entendre, my friend, but there’s something a little worrisome in your eyes.”
From "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
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
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
A mock-up package provided by Battaglia boasts it contains four “puros rollos” — a double-entendre that literally means “pure rolls” but can also be understood as “pure nonsense.”
From Seattle Times ● May 31, 2017
I have no patience to study out double-entendre, so it never shocks me.
From The Fighting Chance by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
