Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A word or phrase having a double meaning, especially when the second meaning is risqué.
- n. The use of such a word or phrase; ambiguity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A word or phrase with two meanings, or admitting of two interpretations, one of which is usually obscure or indelicate.
Wiktionary
- n. alternative spelling of double entendre.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A word or expression admitting of a double interpretation, one of which is often obscure or indelicate.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an ambiguity with one interpretation that is indelicate
Etymologies
- Obsolete French : double, double + entendre, to mean, interpretation. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We notice the ambiguous response of a woman offered game by a hunter an earthy double-entendre in Dutch, as she slips off a shoe and reaches for her Bible.”
“I think they must have thought they were being very ooh-la-la along the lines of Pret - but maybe there were too many dog owners/country folk who recognised the double-entendre and didn't fancy abite after that!”
“Travis, an albur is a double-entendre play on words.”
“Now we just need to think of clever double-entendre annual dates for protests in favor of minimal restrictions on immigration, abolishment of tariffs, allowances for gay marriage, and decriminalization of prostitution, and then we'll be getting somewhere.”
“On the other hand, it's all delivered in endless double-entendre, with the characters talking about flowers and persimmon seeds and whatnot, but you know what they're really talking about -- nudge-nudge, wink-wink.”
“And I say that fully aware of the double-entendre, too. datingjesus”
Just a tinge more on the burden of Disney royalty « Dating Jesus
“I've been doing double-entendre all my life, says the 89-year-old actress, whose career resurgence includes starring opposite Sandra Bullock in The Proposal, hosting Saturday Night Live and playing the caretaker on Hot in Cleveland.”
“She frequently gave her books double-entendre titles "I Lost It at the Movies" is one of the cleaner ones.”
“I couldn't quite tell if this was meant as a “witty” double-entendre or just the oddly-resonant result of his blindly groping for the nearest topic of conversation.”
“In Charles Vidor's evergreen 1946 oddity Gilda – a studio-bound noir thriller that often feels more like an underlit musical comedy – the imperishable, impossible and irreplaceable Rita Hayworth reaches out across nearly seven decades of vanished time to prove that she still, with one extended little finger and a blunderbuss double-entendre, has the power to knock every man in the audience flat on his ass.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘double-entendre’.
-
Wordplay & Pun
wordplay, pound, conceit, clinch, joke, quibble, equivoque, double-entendre, quillet, calembour, carriwitchet, paranomasia and 90 more...
-
WF - Word Formation Words
Classes of words and types of word formation
sniglet, protologism, portmanteau word, blend, telescope-word, frankenword, double-entendre, compound, derivative, palindrome, spoonerism, malapropism and 152 more...
-
February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
-
•Open List: Two for One
Phrases using the word "double." No doubles allowed. ;-)
double over, double up, doubled fists, double blanket, double room, double bed, double time, double sink, double-time, double scotch, double back, on the double and 87 more...
-
five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 941 more...
-
word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
-
List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
-
anotherfailedattempt's Words
kakistocracy, conflagration, pollyanna, equanimity, punctillious, obstreperous, ribald, belligerent, truculent, verbose, lachrymose, onanism and 278 more...
-
good words
words that are mostly fun to say or just lovely
undulate, voluptuous, whimsy, parse, dank, cerulean, peen, traipsing, listless, coup de grace, reconnoiter, mercurial and 499 more...
-
French
fin de siecle, gauche, arriviste, roman a clef, dernier cri, gasconnade, bete noire, décolletage, rapporteur, joie de vivre, carte blanche, cause célèbre and 28 more...
-
simple & useful7
hamlet, municipality, shire, colloquially, decrescendo, coaxingly, disproportional, perturbed, obligatory, appurtenance, taciturn, coterminous and 58 more...
-
Words related to language use
A list for words related to grammar, structure of written works, or words that describe aspects of our language.
logophile, highfalutin, phoneme, digraph, mutual intelligib..., double-entendre, diction, lexicon, litotes, threnody, florilegium, sesquipedality and 3 more...
-
Nick's Words
Words I often can't recall when I need to use them. Plus some interesting words I like.
paranoid, ineffable, syncopated, authenticity, euphemism, profundity, ambiguous, consequential, contingent, apropos, veg-eatables, autoantonym and 56 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for double-entendre.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.