This is also a great example of how a double entendre can be used for humor, since everything is fine is an odd thing to scream. The ruse allows Odysseus to escape to his ship and continue his voyage home. The ironic twist that a good double entendre adds to a story is a great tool for authors who want to send more than one meaning.
A double entendre may also help writers get a laugh or to express thoughts that cannot normally be expressed politely. Double entendres work on every scale, from a single sentence to the narrative arc of an entire story, and can be found in works of every genre.
Feedback See Today's Synonym. Word of the Day. Time Traveler for double entendre The first known use of double entendre was in See more words from the same year. Statistics for double entendre Look-up Popularity. Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of double entendre. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Test your vocabulary with our question quiz! Love words?
Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Week - Nov. Ask the Editors 'Everyday' vs. Classical and modern writers use double entendres to establish sexual innuendo and humor in their plays or books. Examples of literary double entendres include:. However, euphemisms are words or phrases that replace more inappropriate words such as "a rendezvous" instead of "a sexual encounter" and don't serve double meanings as double entendres do.
Innuendo is also different from double entendres — although both can have a sexual meaning, innuendo only has one meaning, while double entendres have two. Because double entendres are words or phrases that can be interpreted in two ways, they aren't always sexual in nature, and sometimes they are not even intentional.
Some examples of accidental double entendres as newspaper headlines include:. You may notice that some of these double entendres rely on puns or other types of wordplay.
They make sense in both interpretations, but the second meaning is a little sillier. Double entendres, when used intentionally, can be entertaining because they get a laugh both from people in the know and from people who do not get the second or sexual meaning. For example:. Movie and television producers often use double entendres to both entertain kids who do not get the second, sexual or tawdry reference and parents who do get the second reference.
It's an effective way to increase their viewing audience.
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