Word play or wordplay is a literary technique and a form of wit in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling character names are common examples of word play.
Word play is quite common in oral cultures as a method of reinforcing meaning.
Examples of visual orthographic and sound-based word play abound in both alphabetically and non-alphabetically written literature (e.g. Chinese).
Read more about Word Play: Techniques, Examples, Related Phenomena
Famous quotes containing the words word and/or play:
“For a large class of cases—though not for all—in which we employ the word “meaning” it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“When I play on my fiddle in Dooney,
Folk dance like a wave of the sea....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)