Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Witty or clever verbal exchange; repartee.
- n. The act or an instance such exchange.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A more or less subtle playing upon the meaning of words.
WordNet 3.0
- n. playing on words or speech sounds
- n. a humorous play on words
Examples
“Humorous wordplay is an inextricable part of many of the featured works.”
“Gershwin's lyric is, indeed, much more self-consciously written than Robin's, reveling in wordplay (note the extravagant conduplicatio on long and dream), various types of rhyme, and allusions far removed from everyday conversation (that whole "Aladdin's lamp" thing).”
“It's true that some readers are challenged by Jack's style and word selection, but for others, his masterful wordplay is unique and addicting.”
Reader Challenge #6 - The Harry Potter Outreach Program Final Update
“If so, the wordplay is is fair representation of The Second Child – a smart and funny collection that is at times just a little glib.”
Deborah Garrison Finds Poetry at the Intersection of Work and Motherhood « One-Minute Book Reviews
“The wordplay is a joy and catching all the literary allusions the novel contains made me feel very smart/educated indeed!”
“When Don DeLillo describes a man's walk as "a sort of explanatory shuffle, a comment on the literature of shuffles," I feel nothing; the wordplay is just too insincere, too patently meaningless.”
“Proulx once acknowledged that she tends to "compress" too much into short stories, but her wordplay is just as relentless in her novels; she seems unaware that all innovative language derives its impact from the contrast to straightforward English.”
“When DeLillo describes a man's walk as a "sort of explanatory shuffle ... a comment on the literature of shuffles" (Underworld), I feel nothing; the wordplay is just too insincere, too patently meaningless.”
“English name takes advantage of wordplay, the Arabic word is as unequivocal and categorical as it is evocative of something hopelessly degraded and degrading, something you should shun at all costs.”
“Nilsson engages in wordplay with the narrator’s relationship with a girl named Joy, including a chorus that includes “Joy to the world/Was a beautiful girl/But to me Joy meant only sorrow.””
A Progressive on the Prairie » Midweek Music Moment: Son of Schmilsson, Harry Nilsson » Print
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wordplay’.
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Words that are also movies
Unabashedly stolen from a comment made by courier12.
vertigo, serendipity, casablanca, psycho, jaws, fantasia, stagecoach, network, rocky, giant, platoon, unforgiven and 285 more...
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• Knuckle tattoos
Our personal suggestions for those who feel the need for knuckle tattoos. For "4+4", see also frogapplause's Candy Hearts.
venomous, unworthy, tucotuco, vrooming, mispelin, i ♥ mozart, tiramisù, fartlets, pindaric, pecorino, the f word, 3.141592 and 103 more...
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Wordplay & Pun
wordplay, pound, conceit, clinch, joke, quibble, equivoque, double-entendre, quillet, calembour, carriwitchet, paranomasia and 89 more...
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 315 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...
grantbarrett wordplay != swordplay
Nov 12, 2009
maesepedro self-selecting? Mar 24, 2008