spoonerism
Transposed initial sounds
A spoonerism is an error in speech where corresponding sounds in two or more words are accidentally swapped: "a blushing crow" for "a crushing blow," "you have hissed all my mystery lectures" for "you have missed all my history lectures." Named after William Archibald Spooner, an Oxford dean notorious for such slips.
Minor error or misstep
- flubClumsy error
- gaffeClumsy social error
- blooperEmbarrassing recorded mistake
- mispronunciationIncorrect vocal rendering
Wordplay using double meanings
- anagramReshuffled letter word
- palindromeReversible letter sequence
- malapropismSound-alike word confusion
- metathesisSound reordering in words
portmanteau · tongue-twister · mondegreen · eggcorn · paronomasia · double entendre · neologism · contronym
Study of speech sounds
- phonologyScience of language sounds
- metathesisSound reordering in words
- transpositionSwapping positions of elements
- consonantIn agreement with
vowel · syllable · articulation · phoneme · speech sounds · onset · pronunciation · spoken language
slip
Minor error or misstep
pun
Wordplay using double meanings
- anagramReshuffled letter word
- palindromeReversible letter sequence
- malapropismSound-alike word confusion
metathesis · portmanteau · tongue-twister · mondegreen · eggcorn · paronomasia · double entendre · neologism · contronym · homophone
phonetics
Study of speech sounds
- phonologyScience of language sounds
- metathesisSound reordering in words
- transpositionSwapping positions of elements
consonant · vowel · syllable · articulation · phoneme · speech sounds · onset · pronunciation · spoken language · speech pattern
wit
Clever, inventive humor
laughter · silliness · comedic effect · absurdity · double meaning
- clever humordry wit, wordplay, clever wordplay, clever banter, puns
- Coined Wordschortle, galumph, nerd, robot, quark
- comedy tropespratfall, parody, sight gag, running gag, satire
- EponymsDarwinian, Alzheimer's disease, Freudian slip, cardigan, Parkinson's disease
- jokesjokes, joke, puns, one-liners, pun
- word playpuns, palindrome, anagrams, anagram, pun
spoonerismmalapropism
Sound-alike word confusion
eggcorn · mondegreen · Freudian slip · neologism · portmanteau