WordPlay
Wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of wordplay include puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, double entendres, and telling character names (such as in the play The Importance of Being Earnest, Ernest being a given name that sounds exactly like the adjective earnest).
Wordplay is quite common in oral cultures as a method of reinforcing meaning. Examples of text-based (orthographic) wordplay are found in languages with or without alphabet-based scripts, such as homophonic puns in Mandarin Chinese.
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