wordplay

[wurd-pley]

noun

1. clever or subtle repartee; verbal wit.

2. a play on words; pun.

wordplay

/ ˈwɜːdˌpleɪ /

noun

1. verbal wit based on the meanings and ambiguities of words; puns, clever repartee, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of wordplay¹

First recorded in 1870–75; word + play

Example Sentences

The best it can do for jokes is endless animal wordplay—a road sign reading “Gnu Jersey,” a bacchanal dubbed “Burning Mammal.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Crosswords, for him, are arguments on behalf of things: of what qualifies as “common knowledge,” of what role puzzles should play in informing a citizenry, of how wordplay and slang snake into the mainstream.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“It was raw emotion without any tricks, without any wordplay, without any of the stuff that I’d been so jaded by in the industry.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

How wordplay and devilish games of deduction can be as satisfying to the soul as a song.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Her videos are a mix of wordplay and cultural commentary and cover a range of topics from local literature to Kashmiri translations of English classics.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• banter 
• pleasantry 
• rejoinder 
• retort 
• sarcasm