Pun is the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound.
A pun is a figure of speech which consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words or phrases for rhetorical effect, whether humorous or serious. A pun can rely on the assumed equivalency of multiple similar words (homonymy), of different shades of meaning of one word (polysemy), or of a literal meaning with a metaphor. Bad puns are often considered to be cheesy.
Examples
Sea captains don't like crew cuts.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
A gossip is someone with a sense of rumor.
Without geometry, life is pointless.
When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.
Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.
Reading while sunbathing makes you well-red.
When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.
Alarms: What an octopus is.
Crick:: The sound that a Japanese camera makes.
Dockyard: A physician's garden.
A salt with a deadly weapon = Assault with a deadly weapon!
Zeugma is the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to only one of them or isappropriate to each but in a different way, as in to wage war and peace or On his fishing trip, he caught threetrout and a cold.
Problems with Zeugma
Sometimes, when people try to use a zeugma in their writing, they will find themselves bordering on dangling modifier issues. It's important to use zeugma in the clearest ways possible and to always have a purpose for doing so.
Zeugma examples
- "The addict kicked the habit and then the bucket." (Zeugma)
- "She exhausted both her audience and her repertoire." (I Love India)
- "To wage war and peace." (I Love India)
- "She looked at the object with suspicion and a magnifying glass." (Charles Dickens, I Love India)
- She looked at her the scene with her eyes and fear.
- "It was curtains for him and the window." (I Love India)
- "He held a high rank and an old notepad." (I Love India)
- "His boat and his dreams sank." (I Love India)
- His heart and his love fled away.
is the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning
Examples
- Posting a video about how boring and useless Facebook is on Facebook.
- My friend said he can't go to church because he has a theology test to study for!
- The firehouse burns down.
- The police station was robbed.
- The teacher failed the test.
- The student who didn't study passed the test.
- The marriage counselor gets a divorce
Malapropism
is the production of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, often humorous utterance.
