Advertisement

Advertisement

View definitions for spoonerism

spoonerism

noun as in slip of the tongue

Discover More

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She would sit with me for hours on the couch, pointing to words in books and magazines, and patiently enunciating them, bantering with me in an inexhaustible volley of puns, spoonerisms and goofy double entendres.

Read more on Scientific American

Bush, famously, is a gaffe specialist, the purveyor of scrambled-hash syntax, madcap circumlocutions, spoonerisms and other “Bushisms” that have haunted the internet — or as Bush would have it, internets — for decades.

Read more on New York Times

In Week 1463 the Empress asked for Q&A jokes involving spoonerisms — in which the first sounds of two different words are switched.

Read more on Washington Post

Still running — deadline Monday night, Nov. 29: Our contest for spoonerism jokes.

Read more on Washington Post

This week: Write an original Q-A joke featuring a spoonerism, the transposition of the beginnings of different words, as in the entries above from our 1995 contest.

Read more on Washington Post

Advertisement

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement