wordplay
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
Martin and Lewis were the founding fathers of an anarchic, side-splitting brand of comedy that combined pratfalls, ad-libbed wordplay and a sustained demolition of the fourth floor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
Some wordplay to end the day: Take a quick break with Slate’s Pears game, which challenges you to make as many words out of one combination of letters as you can.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
Her writing, always full of jokes and wordplay, is inquisitive, improvisatory and a bit maudlin.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
It is interesting how this euphemism in particular has gained such widespread use, though of course the practice of wordplay is really anything but new.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
Jonathan Swift has always been a favorite, but I can’t get over how clever his wordplay is throughout the novel.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
But the Empress won’t turn away wordplays that use the same word with different meanings.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 2, 2017
Still running — deadline Monday night, July 6: Our contest for wordplays on foreign terms.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 1, 2015
When in doubt, make tragic wordplays and drench them with alliteration.
From Slate ● Apr. 22, 2013
Turning to the news media, the psychic said the tabloids would run out of obvious wordplays on Cathleen P. Black’s surname.
From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2010
The result is quite an explosion, a staccato burst of verbal star shells, pinwheel phrases, cherry bombs of Joycean puns and wordplays.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
