List of forms of word play


This is a list of techniques used in word play.
Techniques that involve the phonetic values of words
Techniques that involve the letters
  • Acronym: abbreviations formed by combining the initial components in a phrase or names
  • Apronym: an acronym that is also a phrase pertaining to the original meaning
  • * RAS syndrome: repetition of a word by using it both as a word alone and as a part of the acronym
  • * Recursive acronym: an acronym that has the acronym itself as one of its components
  • Acrostic: a writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line can be put together to spell out another message
  • * Mesostic: a writing in which a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text
  • * Word square: a series of letters arranged in the form of a square that could be read both vertically and horizontally
  • Backronym: a phrase back-formed by treating a word that is originally not an initialism or acronym as one
  • * Replacement Backronym: a phrase back-formed from an existing initialism or acronym that is originally an abbreviation with another meaning
  • Anagram: rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase
  • * Ambigram: a word which can be read just as well mirrored or upside down
  • * Blanagram: rearranging the letters of a word or phrase and substituting one single letter to produce a new word or phrase
  • * Letter bank: using the letters from a certain word or phrase as many times as wanted to produce a new word or phrase
  • * Jumble: a kind of word game in which the solution of a puzzle is its anagram
  • Chronogram: a phrase or sentence in which some letters can be interpreted as numerals and rearranged to stand for a particular date
  • Gramogram: a word or sentence in which the names of the letters or numerals are used to represent the word
  • Lipogram: a writing in which certain letter is missing
  • * Univocalic: a type of poetry that uses only one vowel
  • Palindrome: a word or phrase that reads the same in either direction
  • Pangram: a sentence which uses every letter of the alphabet at least once
  • Tautogram: a phrase or sentence in which every word starts with the same letter
  • Caesar shift: moving all the letters in a word or sentence some fixed number of positions down the alphabet
Techniques that involve semantics and the choosing of words
Techniques that involve the manipulation of the entire sentence or passage
  • Dog Latin
  • Language game: a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to the untrained ear
  • * Pig Latin
  • * Ubbi dubbi
  • Non sequiturs: a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement
Techniques that involve the formation of a name
Techniques that involves figure of speech
Others