Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Word play; punning.
- n. A pun.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In rhetoric, the use of words similar in sound but different in meaning, so as to give a certain antithetical force to the expression; also, the use of the same word in different senses; a play upon words. Also paronomasy. see pun.
- n. Synonyms Assonance, etc. See pun.
Wiktionary
- n. A pun or play on words
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A play upon words; a figure by which the same word is used in different senses, or words similar in sound are set in opposition to each other, so as to give antithetical force to the sentence; punning.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a humorous play on words
Etymologies
- Latin, from Greek paronomasiā, from paronomazein, to call by a different name : para-, beside; see para-1 + onomazein, to name; see onomastic.
Examples
“I'm sitting here trying to decide whether a particular specimen of paronomasia is to be considered polyptoton or antanaclasis.”
“I'm reviewing important terms, including "paronomasia," which is the cocktail party word for "pun.”
“More than most linguistic modes, such as paronomasia and malapropism, quasi malediction has diametric force.”
“But then again, Tom Stoppard (who cowrote the film with Terry Gilliam) always seemed to prefer paronomasia to his fellow men anyway.”
“Warden, “grounded on a vain play upon words — a most idle paronomasia.””
“Lane held the poetry untranslatable because abounding in the figure Tajnís, our paronomasia or paragram, of which there are seven distinct varieties,433 not to speak of other rhetorical flourishes.”
“Scrotes allowed, nevertheless, there was something in what MacMurrough had said and by way of illustrating this allowance he quoted from Augustine who had polluted the vein of friendship with the filth of desire—a phrase, Scrotes remarked, which would mean nothing to the Greeks, for whom friendship and desire were congenial if MacMurrough would forgive the paronomasia bedfellows.”
“[869] A paronomasia on [Greek: genesis] as if [Greek: epi gên neusis].”
“[327] The paronomasia is on [Greek: hetairos, heteros].”
“Meek conveys the paronomasia involved very effectively by a rendering which we have followed above: "Called Babel because there Yahweh made a babble" Whatever other interpretation the”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paronomasia’.
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 322 more...
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Rhetorical Devices
syllepsis, zeugma, trope, wellerism, anastrophe, anaphora, apostrophe, metonymy, chiasmus, antimetabole, syncope, open-list and 431 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Words about Words
backronym, contranym, haplology, enallage, paronomasia, omniana, scripturient, ambigram, idioglossia, dysphemism, tmesis, panvocalic and 6 more...
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wordplay words
anagram, alternade, punning, equivoque, paronomasia, disport, joual, marrowsky, glossopoeist, stain gloss, vrittigloss, glosszend and 4 more...
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Neologistics
Basically this is a "words about words" list with a focus on neologism generation in all its various forms.
wordplay, paronomasia, madeupical, logodaedaly, onomatopoeic, verbification, nominalization, recontextualization, spoonerism, typo recycling, sloganeer, wordsmith and 59 more...
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Words I've found in reading.
paronomasia, spatulate, dun, cull, din, anthetic, thaumaturgic, natation, fettle, diurnal, simulacrum, propaedeutic and 14 more...
knitandpurl "The riddle that Lenehan the sports reporter proposes to his colleagues and friends at the newspaper, the Cicerone said—"What opera resembles a railway line?"—is remembered by Bloom on several occasions throughout the day of Ulysses.
A few paragraphs further on, in the newspaper office, Lenehan proudly tells them the answer:
"The Rose of Castile. See the wheeze? Rows of cast steel. Gee!"
Railing at the rails, A said.
Paronomasia, Professor Jones said."
The House of Ulysses by Julián Ríos, translated by Nick Caistor, pp 105-106 Dec 25, 2010
jmjarmstrong JM often has paronomasia experiences - sometimes even out of context experiences! Mar 10, 2010
Telofy Sorry, this paronomasia is puny.
(By the way, why is the plural paronomasias, not paronomasiae?) Oct 25, 2009
mollusque No mas. Mar 1, 2009
ofravens Astonished that I didn't learn this word until today. Mar 1, 2009
hernesheir cf. paronomasy Jan 1, 2009