Word.ws English Dictionary

entendre

entendre noun: a meaning, especially one that is implied rather than explicitly stated.

Noun

entendre (plural entendres)

  1. A meaning, especially one that is implied rather than explicitly stated.
    • Like Lon Chaney, this mind’s mummy lives—but beneath how many wrappings of multiple entendres?1970, Eugene Wildman, Montezuma’s Ball, Chicago, Ill.: The Swallow Press Inc., →LCCN, page 82
    • “Come on baby let’s ride / slide on into your four-wheel-drive and ride,” the singer urges, conveying more entendres than two.1986, San Francisco Focus, volume 33, page 105, column 2

Examples of entendre in a sentence

  • Still, in pursuit of said Phantom Nympho, much fun had been had – and more entendres doubled than you could shake a stick at.1992, Julie Burchill, Sex & Sensibility, London: Grafton, →ISBN, page 38:
  • “But now we’re into more entendres, different shadings.”1999 November–December, Joel Drucker, “King of the Ring: Let the Critics Snipe; Pro Wrestling Honcho Vince McMahon Will Tell You, ‘We’re...
  • She was able to weave emotional intensity, multiple entendres, and metaphors together to form elegant poetry.2010, The British Tradition (Prentice Hall Literature), Michigan teacher’s edition, volume 2, Prentice Hall, →ISBN, page 804:

Forms of entendre

pluralentendres

Origin of entendre

Extracted from double entendre, corresponding to French entendre (“to understand, to mean”); doublet of intend.

Phrases with entendre

Questions about entendre

What does entendre mean?
Entendre means a meaning, especially one that is implied rather than explicitly stated.
How do you use entendre in a sentence?
Still, in pursuit of said Phantom Nympho, much fun had been had – and more entendres doubled than you could shake a stick at.
What part of speech is entendre?
Entendre is a noun.
What is the plural of entendre?
The plural of entendre is entendres.

Words near entendre in the dictionary

  1. entender
  2. entendered
  3. entendering
  4. entenders
  5. entending
  6. entendre
  7. entendres
  8. entends
  9. Entenmann
  10. entent
  11. entente

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: entendre (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “entendre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/entendre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.