pun

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a humorous or rhetorical play on words that exploits similar sounds or multiple meanings

   The headline's pun depended on two meanings of the word current.

2. 2
   verb

   to make or use a pun

   The speaker punned on the word sole when describing the fish restaurant.

The wordplay noun and verb entered English in the late seventeenth century. Their origin is uncertain, though pun may be a shortening of the obsolete pundigrion, itself a fanciful formation possibly influenced by Italian puntiglio ("fine point").

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