How to use wordplay in a sentence
12 example sentences · noun
Wordplay means a humorous play on words; such plays on words collectively. Example: “Back-formations, such as tambour (for “play the tambourine”), are a staple of comedic wordplay.”
Examples of wordplay by meaning
nounA humorous play on words; such plays on words collectively.
- Even this modest wordplay was an outlier: Sagers counted only three backronyms across the ’70s and ’80s.2022 November 12, Matteo Wong, “How Did America End Up With the Z.O.M.B.I.E. Act?”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 12 Nov...
nounThe part of a cryptic clue that indicates but does not define the solution.
- delete the T from another part in the wordplay2012 June 13, Denise Sutherland, Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 105
- However, some clues include words that do not form part of the wordplay or the definition.2014, Henry Howarth, Learn How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords: A Course for Beginners, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 59
More sentences with wordplay
- Back-formations, such as tambour (for “play the tambourine”), are a staple of comedic wordplay.From the entry back-formation
- “You’ll often find prompt engineers come from a history, philosophy, or English language background, because it’s wordplay.2023 March 29, Conrad Quilty-Harper, “$335,000 Pay for ‘AI Whisperer’ Jobs Appears in Red-Hot Market”, in Bloomberg. From the entry AI whisperer
- Miriam's wordplay was steering fractionally too close to the wind for my liking.2003, Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon, page 150. From the entry close to the wind
- Wordplay has taken on the cold precision and theorization of modern mathematics.1977 May, Paul Remley, “Gamenung Mid Wordum”, in Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, volume 10, number 2, Morristown…. From the entry dictionarization
- These eight devices, and combinations thereof, account for nearly every kind of wordplay you will encounter in cryptic crosswords.2001 06, Fraser Simpson, 101 Cryptic Crosswords: From the New Yorker, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 6. From the entry device
- Yet this enterprise was a slippery one; fictitious etymologies and overclever wordplay were the province of the logodaedalus: a dangerously cunning wordsmith..2018, Alexander Marr, Raphaele Garrod, Jose Ramon Marcaida, Logodaedalus: Word Histories of Ingenuity in Early Modern Europe. From the entry logodaedalus
- They test the possibilities of collage, frottage, grattage, different methods of painting and printing, but also wordplay—and the mutual imitation and intersection ofthese devices.2013, Ralph Ubl, Prehistoric Future: Max Ernst and the Return of Painting between the Wars. From the entry grattage
- This playful "ponyspeak" is innocent and easy to decode, but it inspired the much more vernacular "bronyspeak," a hybrid of this official wordplay with oral urban slang.2015, Bill Ellis, "What Bronies See When They Brohoof: Queering Animation on the Dark and Evil Internet", Journal of American Folklore…. From the entry bronyspeak
- One form of wordplay that’s proved both popular and fruitful in the National Puzzlers’ League—but has been used rarely if at all in cryptic crosswords—is the letter bank.2013 February 14, Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto, “Going to the Bank”, in The Nation. From the entry letter bank
Meaning of wordplay
- noun A humorous play on words; such plays on words collectively.
- noun A witty verbal exchange; such exchanges collectively.
- noun The part of a cryptic clue that indicates but does not define the solution.
Questions about wordplay in a sentence
- How do you use wordplay in a sentence?
- Wordplay is used as a noun. For example: “Back-formations, such as tambour (for “play the tambourine”), are a staple of comedic wordplay.”
- What is a short sentence with wordplay?
- “delete the T from another part in the wordplay”
- What does wordplay mean?
- Wordplay means a humorous play on words; such plays on words collectively.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wordplay (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use wordplay in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/wordplay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.