Pun
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 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.
"The pun is the lowest form of wit."
- 2 Alternative form of bun (“Korean unit of measure”). alt-of, alternative
- 3 A certain number of cowries, generally 80. India, historical
"Hackeries and carriages, loaded and empty, 8 annas. Sheep, goats, &c., 1 pun of cowries each."
- 4 a humorous play on words wordnet
- 1 To beat; strike with force; to ram; to pound, as in a mortar; reduce to powder, to pulverize. obsolete, transitive
"He would pun thee into shivers with his fist."
- 2 make a play on words wordnet
- 3 To make or tell a pun; to make a play on words. intransitive
"We punned about the topic until all around us groaned."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"His style (if you were to call it that) was excessively (though I run the risk of hypocrisy) parenthetical (pardon the pun)."
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.
From the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean 분 (bun), from Chinese 分 (“fen”).
From Hindi [Term?].
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.