Pun vs. Metaphor — What's the Difference?

The pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic, homographic, metonymic, or figurative language.

A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas.

A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable

To make puns or a pun.

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in "a sea of troubles" or "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare).

(transitive) To beat; strike with force; to ram; to pound, as in a mortar; reduce to powder, to pulverize.

One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol

(intransitive) To make or tell a pun; to make a play on words.

The use of a word or phrase to refer to something other than its literal meaning, invoking an implicit similarity between the thing described and what is denoted by the word or phrase.

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.

A word or phrase used in such implied comparison.

: a Korean unit of length equivalent to about 0.3{{nbsp}}cm.

The use of an everyday object or concept to represent an underlying facet of the computer and thus aid users in performing tasks.

To pound.

(intransitive) To use a metaphor.

To make puns, or a pun; to use a word in a double sense, especially when the contrast of ideas is ludicrous; to play upon words; to quibble.

(transitive) To describe by means of a metaphor.

To persuade or affect by a pun.

The transference of the relation between one set of objects to another set for the purpose of brief explanation; a compressed simile; e. g., the ship plows the sea.

A play on words which have the same sound but different meanings; an expression in which two different applications of a word present an odd or ludicrous idea; a kind of quibble or equivocation.

A figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity

A humorous play on words;

Make a play on words;