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:
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
“No pun intended, we just stay in our ‘lane,’ here at Clemson.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 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
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
They laughed then at the suitableness of the unintended pun, and it was in the sound of this laughter that Guitar picked up his brown leather jacket and started out the door.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
Species have been named for ex-spouses, for excrement, for wordplay and puns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
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
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
A huge effort went into a Sesame Street character called the Man from Alphabet, whose specialty was puns.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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
We punned on Buonaparte and his gunboats, chalked his effigy on stage-coaches, and published the same in prints.
From The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy
The penchant for punning titles hasn’t diminished, however.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
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
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
On some other show, Ted Lasso is like the impossibly sunny colleague, always punning, who refuses to ever have a bad attitude.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2020
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
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.
