double entendre

nounplay on words

Synonyms for double entendre

noun play on words

play on words

noun. humorous ambiguous use of word or phrase

Word Origin & History

also double-entendre, 1670s, from French (where it was rare and is now obsolete), literally "a twofold meaning," from entendre (now entente) "to hear, to understand, to mean." The proper Modern French phrase would be double entente, but the phrase has become established in English in its old form.

Example Sentences for double entendre

This was no conventional—if the double entendre may be permitted—demonstration.

And so it was, though I had not been intending what the French call a double entendre at the time.

Here, however, it is probable that a double entendre was meant.

But, no indeed, I was quite innocent of any double entendre.

If it had double entendre, its existence had a double meaning.

And wasn't what he had just said very like what the French call a double entendre?

The Normans failed to see the "double entendre" of this reply.

He divined an innuendo, a double entendre in the speech that he did not comprehend, yet which enraged him.

Now large teeth do not lend themselves to well-spoken comedy scenes, to smiles, or to double entendre.

Simplicissimus, Harden's Zukunft, all the double entendre weeklies and monthlies of Paris.

double entendre

Synonyms for double entendre

loose talk

play on words

pun

puns

tergiversation

double entendre

Synonyms for double entendre

More words related to double entendre

equivocation

loose talk

play on words

pun

puns

tergiversation