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Everything about Wordplay
Form of wit where words are used for special effect
Wordplay is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of wordplay include puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, double entendres, and telling character names. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: WordplayA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Language creativity and heteroglossia in the peer group: Children’s performative wordplay as humorous practiceInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Love's Labour's LostThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Deeper than Wordplay: A Systematic Review of Critical Quantitative Approaches in Education Research (2007–2021)Cited 111 times
- Go sideways: PunA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Double entendreA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun A humorous play on words; such plays on words collectively.
Noun A witty verbal exchange; such exchanges collectively.
Noun The part of a cryptic clue that indicates but does not define the solution.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Deeper than Wordplay: A Systematic Review of Critical Quantitative Approaches in Education Research (2007–2021)
¿Puras Groserías?: Rethinking the Role of Profanity and Graphic Humor in Latin@ Students' Bilingual Wordplay
Bilingual winks and bilingual wordplay in Montreal's linguistic landscape
Wordplay and Translation
A linguistic account of wordplay: The lexical grammar of punning
Altars Altered: The Alexandrian Tradition of Etymological Wordplay in Aeneid 1.108-12
Traditional American Wordplay: The Epigram and Perverted Proverbs
Title: Who are the “grassroots”? On the ambivalent class orientation of online wordplay in China
🆕 Influential since 2022
Language creativity and heteroglossia in the peer group: Children’s performative wordplay as humorous practice
Features of “Wordplay” and Puns in Advertising by the Material of the English and French Languages
Exploring wordplay and humour in English usage within Japanese texts
More than wordplay: Human geography and human intelligence
Teaching future English language teachers the methods of translating wordplay-based jokes in the theory and practice of translation course
📚 Books worth reading
Love's Labour's LostWilliam Shakespeare · 1891
Tres tristes tigresGuillermo Cabrera Infante · 1965
Speed BumpDave Coverly · 2000- 📕Uncle John's Weird, Wonderful World Bathroom ReaderBathroom Readers' Institute · 2023
WordplayWill Shortz · 2006- 📕I Am GrapefulDillon and Kale Sprouts · 2020
- 📕Don't Give a FigDillon and Kale Sprouts · 2020
Wordy Worded WordsWordy Worderson, Loren Weisman · 2026
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding…
- Double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which…
- Japanese wordplay Japanese wordplay relies on the nuances of the Japanese language and Japanese script for humorous effect, functioning somewhat like a cross between a pun…
- Cryptic crossword A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where…
- Holorime Holorime (or holorhyme) is a form of rhyme where two very similar sequences of sounds can form phrases composed of different words and with different meanings…
- Sananmuunnos Sananmuunnos ("Word transformation"), sometimes kääntösana, is a sort of verbal play in the Finnish language, similar to spoonerisms in English. Special…
- List of forms of wordplay This is a list of techniques used in wordplay. Techniques that involve the phonetic values of words Engrish Chinglish Homonym: words with the same sounds…
- Spoonerism A spoonerism is an occurrence of speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words of a phrase…