punning
/ˈpʌnɪŋ/
punning is the present participle and gerund of pun.
Meaning of pun
Verb
pun (third-person singular simple present puns, present participle punning, simple past and past participle punned)
- To beat; strike with force; to ram; to pound, as in a mortar; reduce to powder, to pulverize.
- He would pun thee into shivers with his fist.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- To make or tell a pun; to make a play on words.
- We punned about the topic until all around us groaned.
Noun
punning (countable and uncountable, plural punnings)
- The action of the verb to pun.
Adjective
punning
- That makes or uses a pun.
- The spoonerism "Burly Chassis" is a punning reference to Shirley Bassey's voluptuous figure.
Forms of punning
| plural | punnings |
|---|
Words formed from punning
Words that rhyme with punning
Questions about punning
- What does punning mean?
- Punning means the action of the verb to pun.
- What is punning the present participle and gerund of?
- Punning is the present participle and gerund of pun.
- What part of speech is punning?
- Punning can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce punning?
- Punning is pronounced /ˈpʌnɪŋ/.
- What is the plural of punning?
- The plural of punning is punnings.
Words near punning in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: punning (page history and authors); pun (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-punning.wav.
Cite this entry: “punning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/punning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.