Dictionary.com Word Of The Day
Aug. 04, 2016
paronomasia\par-uh-noh-MEY-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh\noun
1. Rhetoric. punning; the use of a word in different senses or the use
of words similar in sound to achieve a specific effect, as humor or a
dual meaning.
2. Rhetoric. a pun.
QuotesIt was between Whitefield Street and the Tottenham Court Road, in
a "heavenly Mews," as he liked to call it (for he had a characteristic
weakness for philosophicalparonomasia) that Casimir Lypiatt lived and
worked.
-- Aldous Huxley, Antic Hay, 1923
Origin of paronomasiaParonomasia is a borrowing from Latin and can be
traced to the Greek paronomázeinmeaning "to make a slight name-change."
It entered English in the late 1500s.More From Dictionary.comSubmit a
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