Word play is a literary technique in which the nature of the words used themselves become part of the subject of the work. Puns, phonetic mixups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling character names are common examples of word play.

All writers engage in word play to some extent, but certain writers are particularly adept or committed to word play. Shakespeare was a noted punster. James Joyce--whose Ulysses, and even more so, his Finnegans Wake, are filled with brilliant writing and brilliant word play--is another noted word-player. For example, Joyce's phrase "they were yung and easily freudened" clearly conveys the meaning "young and easily frightened", but it also makes puns on the names of two famous psychoanalysts, Jung and Freud.

Other writers closely identified with word play include:

• Lewis Carroll in his Alice books
• Willard R. Espy, who collected several anthologies of word play
• Vladimir Nabokov
• George Bernard Shaw. The well-known spelling of fish as ghoti comes from Shaw: " gh as in tough, o as in women, ti as in station".
• Van Dyke Parks
• Thomas Pynchon

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@itsmegracie i know haha playing around lol i like the beginning when the 'wordplay' stars and he start dancing....goshhhhhhh
CaroWockee (Carolina S.) Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:57:42 -0000
@itsmegracie i know haha playing around lol i like the beginning when the 'wordplay' stars and he start dancing....goshhhhhhh
RT WORDPLAY!!!! I love it too! @CaroWockee @itsmegracie i love that one http://bit.ly/4GxOrb
itsmegracie (♫♥ Gracie Ann S. ♥♫) Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:50:59 -0000
RT WORDPLAY!!!! I love it too! @CaroWockee @itsmegracie i love that one http://bit.ly/4GxOrb
RT @KMWeiland: "11 Dichotomous Characters - And Why They Work" http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com
ericjkrause (Eric Krause) Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:24:57 -0000
RT @KMWeiland: "11 Dichotomous Characters - And Why They Work" http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com
RT @KMWeiland: "11 Dichotomous Characters - And Why They Work" http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com
Kay_Aitch_Eyy (Kyle Allkins) Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:23:07 -0000
RT @KMWeiland: "11 Dichotomous Characters - And Why They Work" http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com
"11 Dichotomous Characters - And Why They Work" http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com
KMWeiland (K.M. Weiland) Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:20:24 -0000
"11 Dichotomous Characters - And Why They Work" http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com
@Darth_Shadow There's no real wordplay there though. I like wordplay in RP account names if I can think of it.
GeneralTekno (Michael Ivey) Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:02:57 -0000
@Darth_Shadow There's no real wordplay there though. I like wordplay in RP account names if I can think of it.

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