paronomasia
paronomasia (par-uh-noh-MAY-zhuh, par-uh-noh-MAY-zee-uh) - n., a figure of speech suggests two or more meanings by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words.
The technical term for a pun. You can exploit alternate meanings of the same word or of separate words that are pronounced the same, or almost the same -- and do this for either humorous or rhetorical effect, or even both at once: "You arguments are sound, nothing but sound." Like most terms in rhetoric, from ancient Greek -- paronomasÃa, a play on words, literally, calling by a slightly different name, from para-, at the side of + onomázein, to name.
---L.
The technical term for a pun. You can exploit alternate meanings of the same word or of separate words that are pronounced the same, or almost the same -- and do this for either humorous or rhetorical effect, or even both at once: "You arguments are sound, nothing but sound." Like most terms in rhetoric, from ancient Greek -- paronomasÃa, a play on words, literally, calling by a slightly different name, from para-, at the side of + onomázein, to name.
---L.