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Word play or wordplay [1] (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 word play include puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly ...
An older English term that was sometimes used for this meaning is afterwit; it is used, for example, in James Joyce's Ulysses (Chapter 9). The Yiddish trepverter ("staircase words") [4] and the German loan translation Treppenwitz express the same idea as l'esprit de l'escalier .
Sophia ( Koinē Greek: σοφία, sophía —"wisdom") is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism and Christian theology. Originally carrying a meaning of "cleverness, skill", the later meaning of the term, close to the meaning of phronesis ("wisdom, intelligence"), was significantly shaped by the term ...
A pun, also rarely known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. [3] These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or figurative language.
Wit. Look up wit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. "The feast of reason..." — James Gillray (1797) Wit is a form of intelligent humour —the ability to say or write things that are clever and typically funny. [1] Someone witty is a person who is skilled at making clever and funny remarks. [1] [2] Forms of wit include the quip, repartee ...
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, or wit, an inability to learn. It may be innate, assumed or reactive. The word stupid comes from the Latin word stupere. Stupid characters are often used for comedy in fictional stories. Walter B. Pitkin called stupidity "evil", but in a more Romantic spirit William Blake and Carl Jung ...
Litotes. In rhetoric, litotes ( / laɪˈtoʊtiːz, ˈlaɪtətiːz /, US: / ˈlɪtətiːz / ), [1] also known classically as antenantiosis or moderatour, is a figure of speech and form of irony in which understatement is used to emphasize a point by stating a negative to further affirm a positive, often incorporating double negatives for effect.
Maxim: (1) an instructional expression of a general principle or rule of morality or (2) simply a synonym for "aphorism"; they include: Brocard. Gnome. Legal maxim. Motto: a saying used frequently by a person or group to summarize its general mission. Credo: a motto implicitly or explicitly extended to express a larger belief system.