A pun, or paronomasia, is a form of word play that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect.[1] Such ambiguity may arise from the intentional misuse of homophonical, homographical, homonymic, polysemic, metonymic[citation needed], or metaphorical[citation needed] language.
By definition, puns must be deliberate; an involuntary substitution of similar words is called a malapropism.
Samuel Johnson disparagingly referred to punning as "the lowest form of humour".[2] Punning has been used by writers such as Alexander Pope,[2] James Joyce,[2] Vladimir Nabokov,[2] William Shakespeare (who is estimated to have used over 3,000 puns in his plays),[citation needed] John Donne, and Lewis Carroll.
"A good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation." James Boswell
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