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.
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End the day with some wordplay: What’s an 11-letter word for “Hogs”? And what’s a three-letter word for a “Hog’s neighbor, maybe”? Play today’s crossword for some clever clues and interesting trivia tidbits.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Some wordplay to end the day: Take a break with today’s Pears, which has 10 rounds.
From Slate ● Sep. 3, 2026
Species have been named for ex-spouses, for excrement, for wordplay and puns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Inflected with Thomas Pynchon-like wordplay and situations, it’s both ambitious and funny.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
That’s the kind of wordplay that a preschooler simply doesn’t understand.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
