as in humor
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Recent Examples of wordplay
The suffering in these songs is almost comical, but the hurt under the wordplay was real.
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Alex Abramovich, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025
The story about Bagel veers through the inevitable health issues that come with owning a 16-year-old cat and lands on a pedantic piece of wordplay about the name of Bagel’s preferred pill-providing supplement, Easypill Giver Cat.
—Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2025
Take note of the clever literary allusions and wordplay that might have gone over your head back in elementary school.
—Lizz Schumer, PEOPLE, 7 Dec. 2025
On The Face of 68, Holsapple’s superb songwriting—the trademark hooks, melodies, and wordplay—is on abundant display.
—Air Mail, 29 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wordplay
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wordplay
Noun
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Over two decades after the original, the cast reunited with enthusiasm, celebrating the humor and heart that made the film resonate for generations.—
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These songs smartly aim much higher than mere shock value, and that makes the humor all the deeper.—
Noun
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The verbiage is full of great wordplay and wit, just like a Larry Hart song.—
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Robustly packed with over 30 tracks, including 16 exclusive to the standard edition, the project captures their signature blend of raw honesty, sly wit, and dry humor.—
Noun
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And secondly, the ribbing around the quarter-zip is comfy-looking and actually works to insulate by trapping air.—
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His coaches, Roy Hallenbeck and Ken Williams, subjected him to the same ribbing as every other player, even teasing him about his preference for wearing the same size too-small jersey for all four years, so that by senior year his biceps stretched the sleeves to their limit.—
Noun
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The movie has a brief mocking glimpse of MTV, just for a cheap laugh, when Springsteen is flipping channels between Badlands reruns.—
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The cast, for their part, have not let up on their mocking of him.—
Noun
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Just kidding, Kim’s is a real and rational response, but Natalie is not having it.—
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While fictional, Joel’s compassion and care can’t help but feel like counterprogramming to the cynical everyday horrors of violent deportations, open bigotry from leading politicians, measles outbreaks and the return of whole milk (kidding!—
Cite this Entry
“Wordplay.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wordplay. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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