# Pun > Wordplay that brings two meanings into one expression through a word's different senses or words that sound alike. ‘The bank lost interest in me’ plays on attention and a financial term. Also known as paronomasia ## In practice A pun makes one expression carry two meanings, usually through a word with several senses or words that sound alike. ‘The bank lost interest in me’ can mean attention or a financial term. Context must make both readings available; a word with two dictionary meanings is not automatically a joke. Puns can entertain, threaten or expose a character's evasions. A person who answers a serious question with wordplay may be buying time. The useful question for a writer is what the second meaning does to the scene, not whether the line would win a joke contest. A setup makes the first reading feel natural, while a reply or action brings the second into focus. Plant a word tied to the speaker's work or immediate problem, then let the listener redirect it. If a joke could belong to anyone in any scene, revise its setup until it reveals this relationship. The reaction should keep the conversation moving: an unanswered joke can expose a failed attempt to connect. ## One word, two readings **Original scene: a locksmith's shop** ``` INT. LOCKSMITH'S SHOP - NIGHT MARA slides an unpaid invoice under the locked office door. Inside, keys jingle. MARA You said this job would open doors. LEO It did. Just none with money behind them. Mara pushes the invoice farther. Leo's keys fall silent. ``` ‘Open doors’ means create opportunities and literally unlock entrances. The locksmith [setting](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/setting) activates both. Leo keeps the joke going to avoid discussing payment; the silence afterward restores the [stakes](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/stakes). The wordplay changes how the two people negotiate. ## Pun examples and how they work Same word, different senses: ‘The bank lost interest in me.’ Interest can mean attention or money charged on a loan. A rejected borrower makes both meanings relevant. ‘The conductor couldn't face another movement’ joins a musical section to physical motion; a tired musician supplies the context. Different words, similar sounds: ‘The baker kneads a holiday’ plays on kneads and needs. This is a homophonic pun: the sound carries the double reading even though the spelling differs. In a script, an audience hears the line, so test it aloud rather than relying on a clever spelling. An extended pun keeps more than one expression alive: a gardener ‘puts down roots’ and then refuses to ‘branch out’. Each added phrase should develop the situation. A chain that stops the scene merely to collect plant words becomes a routine instead of [dialogue](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/dialogue). These workshop examples are invented to show the mechanism. A literary example: after receiving his fatal wound in Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, scene 1, Mercutio says that tomorrow they will find him ‘a grave man’. Grave means serious and also names a burial place. His wordplay continues as he faces death, so the pun carries dread as well as wit. The Folger text linked under sources lets you read the line in its scene. ## Pun, double entendre, malapropism and paradox A double entendre permits two interpretations, often with a suggestive second meaning. It can use a pun, but ambiguity can also come from the whole situation. A malapropism mistakenly substitutes a similar-sounding word; the joke is the speaker's error. A pun deliberately lets the audience hear two meanings. A [paradox](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/paradox) sets up an apparent contradiction that can reveal a truth. It need not play on sound or vocabulary. ‘I had to leave home to feel at home’ is paradoxical; ‘the bank lost interest’ turns on a word's senses. [Irony](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/irony) concerns a gap between expectation and reality or words and intent. These devices can overlap without being synonyms. ## Write a pun that belongs to the character Start with the scene's task: collect a debt, hide a mistake, delay a decision. List three words the task naturally supplies. Give one a second reading, then place a concrete detail nearby that makes that reading accessible. If you must explain the joke afterward, revise the setup or remove it. Make a literal version beside the pun: ‘You promised me work’ beside ‘You said this job would open doors.’ Read both aloud. Keep the pun only if it adds voice, tension or a useful change of subject. Let the listener react; a groan, silence or refusal can matter more than another joke. Try both versions in Canvas for a story or in Plot for a scene. When translating, rebuild the double meaning in the new language rather than preserving the original words. An English homophone rarely survives a literal translation. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Nov 3, 2026 - [Poetry Foundation — Pun](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/pun) - [Folger Shakespeare Library — Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, scene 1](https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/romeo-and-juliet/read/3/1/) [Try the exercise in Canvas](https://www.inkwell.software/canvas) ## Common questions ### What is a pun? A pun is wordplay that activates two meanings through one word or through words that sound alike. ‘The bank lost interest in me’ uses interest as both attention and a financial term. ### Are all puns jokes? No. A pun can be playful, bitter, evasive or threatening. Its defining feature is the double meaning, not whether the audience laughs. ### What is a homophonic pun? It plays on different words that sound alike, such as kneads and needs in ‘The baker kneads a holiday’. The effect relies on sound rather than identical spelling. ## Related terms - [Diction](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/diction): A writer's choice of words, and the attitude those words carry. "Passed away" and "croaked" report the same death; the diction tells you who is speaking and how they feel. - [Irony](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/irony): A contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between what is expected and what happens. Its three main types are verbal irony, situational irony and dramatic irony. - [Comedy](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/comedy): A story built to amuse, in which characters struggle with problems that end in happiness, often a wedding or reunion. It includes romantic comedy, slapstick, satire and dark comedy. - [Cliché](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/cliche): A phrase, image, character or plot turn used so often that it has lost its force, such as "cold as ice" or the bomb defused with one second left. The cure is usually a specific detail, not deletion. --- Canonical page: