Punny

//ˈpʌni// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A punishment.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Resembling a pun; involving the use of a pun.

    "And though [Terry] Border's overly punny captions fall flat for me, the images themselves exude enough delight to make it all a treat."

  2. 2
    Fond of puns.

    "From Battersea Flower Station to Blonde Dye Bleach, everyone wants to be punny. What's your favourite?"

  3. 3
    Funny.
Adjective
  1. 1
    provoking laughter by means of word play wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
punnishpuntasticpuntastic

Example

More examples

"And though [Terry] Border's overly punny captions fall flat for me, the images themselves exude enough delight to make it all a treat."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From pun + -y, possibly influenced by funny.

Etymology 2

Clipping of punishment + -y.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.