Word.ws English Dictionary

punch lines

punch lines is the plural of punch line.

Meaning of punch line

Noun

punch line (plural punch lines)

  1. The final part of a joke; the word, sentence, or exchange of sentences that is intended to be funny and provokes laughter from the listeners.
    • That was quite a build-up for such a puny punch line.
  2. (broadly) The butt of a joke; laughing stock.
    • The women are a phenomenon; the men are a punchline.2019 July 8, Tom Dart, “The US men's team are now a punchline. Which is a little unfair”, in The Guardian
  3. (broadly) A final, concluding statement that an explanation has been leading up to; a conclusion.
    • The final, the Munich-based liberal newspaper writes, was a “fitting punchline” to a great tournament.2014 July 14, Philip Oltermann, “World Cup final press reaction: Germany’s win a ‘fitting punchline’”, in The Guardian

Questions about punch lines

What is punch lines the plural of?
Punch lines is the plural of punch line.

Words near punch lines in the dictionary

  1. punch house
  2. punch houses
  3. punch in
  4. punch it
  5. punch line
  6. punch lines
  7. punch list
  8. punch lists
  9. punch out
  10. punch outs
  11. punch pocket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: punch lines (page history and authors); punch line (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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