pun.
To beat; strike with force; to ram; to pound, as in a mortar; reduce to powder, to pulverize.
Meaning & usage
To beat; strike with force; to ram; to pound, as in a mortar; reduce to powder, to pulverize.
To make or tell a pun; to make a play on words.
We punned about the topic until all around us groaned.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English ponnen, ponen, punen, from Old English punian, pūnian (“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush, grind”), from Proto-Germanic *punōną (“to break to pieces, pulverize”). See pound. As a kind of word play, from the notion of “beating” the words into place.
A joke or type of wordplay in which similar definitions or sounds of two words or phrases, or different definitions of the same word, are deliberately confused.
The pun is the lowest form of wit.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English ponnen, ponen, punen, from Old English punian, pūnian (“to pound, beat, bray, bruise, crush, grind”), from Proto-Germanic *punōną (“to break to pieces, pulverize”). See pound. As a kind of word play, from the notion of “beating” the words into place.
A certain number of cowries, generally 80.
Where this word comes from
From Hindi [Term?].
Alternative form of bun (“Korean unit of measure”).
Where this word comes from
From the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean 분 (bun), from Chinese 分 (“fen”).
Try it on your idea.
pun has 3 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.