paronomasy
paronomasy is the archaic form of paronomasia.
Meaning of paronomasia
Noun
paronomasia (countable and uncountable, plural paronomasias)
- A pun or play on words.
- Oh, by the way, any attempt to present me with any kind of testimonial will result in stern measures.
And when I say stern measures, I am indulging in a paronomasia, or play on words! Good night.1936 Ian Hay: Housemaster. London Hodder & Stoughton p. 234
- Oh, by the way, any attempt to present me with any kind of testimonial will result in stern measures.
- The use of puns.
- Paronomasia to the sense alludes,
When words but little varied it includes.1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Turns.] Paronomasia.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 88
- Paronomasia to the sense alludes,
Forms of paronomasy
| plural | paronomasies |
|---|
Origin of paronomasy
Compare French paronomasie.
Questions about paronomasy
- What is paronomasy the archaic form of?
- Paronomasy is the archaic form of paronomasia.
Words near paronomasy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: paronomasy (page history and authors); paronomasia (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: “paronomasy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/paronomasy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.