Words · Rare
punned
6 letters · 5 distinct letters
A form of pun.
- verb
make a play on words
Japanese like to pun, their language is well suited to punning
- noun
a humorous play on words
I do it for the pun of it
Word history
History of pun
From Middle English ponnen, ponen, punen, from Old English punian, pūnian (“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush, grind”), from Proto Germanic *punōną (“to break to pieces, pulverize”). See pound. As a kind of word play, from the notion of “beating” the words into place.
From Wiktionary, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0
Why this word counts
- Where it comes from
- Listed in the English Speller Database at size 35: the core list of everyday words.
- How common it is
- Rarer than once in ten million words.
- In the spelling bee
- Bonus word It’s waiting for an editor’s review because it’s rare in everyday writing. Until then it scores as a bonus word.