pun

Meaning

Verb

1. To beat; strike with force; to ram; to pound, as in a mortar; reduce to powder, to pulverize.
2. To make or tell a pun; to make a play on words.

Noun

A joke or type of wordplay in which similar definitions or sounds of two words or phrases, or different definitions of the same word, are deliberately confused.

Noun

Alternative form of bun (“Korean unit of measure”)

Noun

A certain number of cowries, generally 80.

Synonyms

play on words

wordplay

paronomasia

witticism

quibble

clinch

jest

punning

wisecrack

word play

joke

🤣

equivoque

word game

rhyming game

equivoke

go in for rhetoric

acrostic

juggle with words

analogue

clench

double entendre

parody

quip

quirk

repartee

sarcasm

tongue twister

double meaning

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pʌn/

Etymology

From Middle English ponnen, ponen, punen, from Old English punian, pūnian (“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush, grind”), from Proto-Germanic *punōną (“to break to pieces, pulverize”). See pound. As a kind of word play, from the notion of "beating" the words into place.