What does PUN mean?

Definitions for PUN
pʌnpun

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word PUN.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. pun, punning, wordplay, paronomasiaverb

    a humorous play on words

    "I do it for the pun of it"; "his constant punning irritated her"

  2. punverb

    make a play on words

    "Japanese like to pun--their language is well suited to punning"

Wiktionary

  1. punnoun

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

  2. punverb

    To tell a pun, to make a play on words.

    We punned about the topic until all around us groaned.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Punnoun

    An equivocation; a quibble; an expression where a word has at once different meanings.

    Etymology: I know not whence this word is to be deduced: to pun, is to grind or beat with a pestle; can pun mean an empty sound, like that of a mortar beaten, as clench, the old word for pun, seems only a corruption of clink?

    It is not the word, but the figure that appears on the medal: cuniculus may stand for a rabbit or a mine, but the picture of a rabbit is not the picture of a mine: a pun can be no more engraven, than it can be translated. Addison.

    But fill their purse, our poet’s work is done,
    Alike to them by pathos, or by pun. Alexander Pope.

  2. To Punverb

    To quibble; to use the same word at once in different senses.

    Etymology: from the noun.

    The hand and head were never lost, of those
    Who dealt in doggrel, or who punn’d in prose. Dryden.

    You would be a better man, if you could pun like Sir Tristram. Tatler, №. 57.

Wikipedia

  1. Pun

    A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or figurative language. A pun differs from a malapropism in that a malapropism is an incorrect variation on a correct expression, while a pun involves expressions with multiple (correct or fairly reasonable) interpretations. Puns may be regarded as in-jokes or idiomatic constructions, especially as their usage and meaning are usually specific to a particular language or its culture. Puns have a long history in human writing. For example, the Roman playwright Plautus was famous for his puns and word games.

ChatGPT

  1. pun

    A pun is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term or of similar-sounding words to create a humorous or rhetorical effect. These could play on different meanings of the same word, or a word that sounds similar but has different meanings. It's often used in jokes.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Punverb

    to pound

  2. Punnoun

    a play on words which have the same sound but different meanings; an expression in which two different applications of a word present an odd or ludicrous idea; a kind of quibble or equivocation

  3. Punverb

    to make puns, or a pun; to use a word in a double sense, especially when the contrast of ideas is ludicrous; to play upon words; to quibble

  4. Punverb

    to persuade or affect by a pun

  5. Etymology: [See Pound to beat.]

Wikidata

  1. Pun

    The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or metaphorical language. A pun differs from a malapropism in that a malapropism uses an incorrect expression that alludes to another expression, but a pun uses a correct expression that alludes to another expression. Henri Bergson defined a pun as a sentence or utterance in which "two different sets of ideas are expressed, and we are confronted with only one series of words". Puns may be regarded as in-jokes or idiomatic constructions, given that their usage and meaning are entirely local to a particular language and its culture. For example, camping is intense. Puns are used to create humor and sometimes require a large vocabulary to understand. Puns have long been used by comedy writers, such as William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and George Carlin. The Roman playwright Plautus is famous for his tendency to make up and change the meaning of words to create puns in Latin.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Pun

    pun, v.t. (Shak.) to pound. [Cf. Pound.]

  2. Pun

    pun, v.i. to play upon words similar in sound but different in meaning so as to produce a ludicrous idea:—pr.p. pun′ning; pa.t. and pa.p. punned.—n. a play upon words.—ns. Pun′nage, Pun′ning, the act or habit of punning. [Ety. dub.; prob. to beat words=pound, to beat, from A.S. punian, to pound.]

Suggested Resources

  1. PUN

    What does PUN stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the PUN acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. PUN

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Pun is ranked #21736 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Pun surname appeared 1,197 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Pun.

    87.1% or 1,043 total occurrences were Asian.
    4.6% or 56 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    2.8% or 34 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    2.6% or 32 total occurrences were Black.

Matched Categories

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of PUN in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of PUN in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of PUN in a Sentence

  1. Kelly Townsend:

    Let’s see how it does, let’s give it a year and a half and see if it can deliver – you know, no pun intended.

  2. Whitney Way Thore:

    Fat-shaming is a thing ; it's a really big thing, no pun intended, it is the really nasty spawn of a larger parent problem called body-shaming, which I'm fairly certain everyone on the planet, especially women, has experienced.

  3. George Fiorenza:

    San Francisco-based Uber is honestly a perfect vehicle for terrorists, no pun intended, we have real worries about that. A terrorist can go anywhere as an San Francisco-based Uber driver — it’s so easy to sign up and be approved as one — and if he’s stopped by authorities he can just say, ‘ Oh, I ’m an San Francisco-based Uber driver. ’.

  4. Steve Stanulis:

    And I think the answer would still be ‘ no. ’ I was accused of going out with a bang – no pun intended. But I guess I did go out with a bang as far as [ the work ] was concerned. … But I was always a professional.

  5. Gregg Popovich:

    It’s way better with fans, that’s just not a gratuitous comment, it’s for real. It helps you generate competitiveness. It makes everything more enjoyable. Players react to it. So, having fans is fantastic. No pun intended.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

PUN#10000#22562#100000

Translations for PUN

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"PUN." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/PUN>.

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