Madam, I'm Adam. Listen and silent. She sells seashells. Explore palindromes, anagrams, tongue twisters, puns and more, and learn how wordplay builds spelling, vocabulary and pronunciation.
"Madam, I'm Adam." "She sells seashells by the seashore." "Listen" and "silent". These are all examples of wordplay: using the sounds, spellings and meanings of words for fun, creativity and learning. Wordplay is not only entertainment. It sharpens spelling, builds vocabulary, trains pronunciation and helps students to notice how English really works.
This guide explains twelve kinds of wordplay and gives over 170 examples. It covers palindromes (words, sentences, numbers and the longest ones), anagrams (with a list of 55), tongue twisters with audio buttons, puns, spoonerisms, malapropisms, pangrams, riddles and word ladders. It also explains how to use wordplay in the classroom, with key points, ten practice questions and a teacher activity.
It connects with Commonly Mispronounced Words, Commonly Misspelled Words, Idioms in English and Commonly Confused Words. Spelling in this guide follows British English.
| Type | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Palindrome | a word, phrase or number that reads the same forwards and backwards | level, Madam, I'm Adam |
| Anagram | a word or phrase made by rearranging the letters of another, using each letter once | listen / silent |
| Pangram | a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet | The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. |
| Lipogram | writing that avoids one letter | a novel written without the letter e |
| Spoonerism | swapping the first sounds of two words by mistake or for fun | a well-boiled icicle |
| Malapropism | using a wrong word that sounds like the right one | a nice derangement of epitaphs |
| Pun | a joke that uses two meanings or sounds of a word | two-tired |
| Tongue twister | a phrase that is hard to say quickly | She sells seashells by the seashore. |
| Riddle | a puzzle question with a clever answer | What has keys but cannot open locks? |
| Word ladder | changing one letter at a time to turn one word into another | cat, cot, cog, dog |
| Acrostic | a text where the first letters of each line spell a word | S-P-E-L-L down the left side |
| Alliteration | repeating the same first sound in nearby words | Peter Piper picked a peck |
A palindrome reads the same forwards and backwards. The word comes from Greek roots meaning "running back again". In phrases and sentences, ignore spaces, capital letters and punctuation.
level, radar, civic, refer, kayak, madam, rotor, racecar, noon, deed, did, eye, gag, mom, dad, pop, tot, wow, stats, solos, sagas, minim, repaper, redder, rotator, reviver, deified, tenet, sees, peep, toot, nun, bib, kook, Hannah, Anna, Otto, Eve, Ava, malayalam, rotavator.
| Palindrome | Note |
|---|---|
| A man, a plan, a canal: Panama. | a classic |
| Was it a car or a cat I saw? | a question |
| Madam, I'm Adam. | a greeting |
| Never odd or even. | a rule |
| Able was I ere I saw Elba. | often linked with Napoleon, but this is a legend |
| Step on no pets. | a command |
| No lemon, no melon. | about fruit |
| Do geese see God? | a question |
| A Toyota's a Toyota. | a statement |
| Eva, can I see bees in a cave? | a question |
| Rise to vote, sir. | a command |
| Was it a rat I saw? | a question |
| Yo, banana boy! | an exclamation |
| Evil olive. | two words |
| Live not on evil. | advice |
| Dammit, I'm mad! | an exclamation |
| Never a foot too far, even. | a statement |
| Mr Owl ate my metal worm. | a statement |
| Red roses run no risk, sir, on Nurse's order. | a long sentence |
| Murder for a jar of red rum. | a long sentence |
| Word | Note |
|---|---|
| tattarrattat | 12 letters; coined by James Joyce in Ulysses for the sound of a knock |
| detartrated | 11 letters; a chemistry word meaning that tartrate has been removed |
| redivider | 9 letters; one who divides again |
| rotator | 7 letters; something that rotates |
| deified | 7 letters; made into a god |
| saippuakivikauppias | 19 letters; Finnish for a soapstone seller, often cited as the longest palindromic word in a major language |
| Example | Note |
|---|---|
| 121, 1331, 12321 | palindromic numbers |
| 2002 | a palindromic year; the next is 2112 |
| 02/02/2020 | a date that reads the same in both directions (02022020) |
| 12/02/2021 | 12 February 2021 in day-month-year order (12022021) |
How to make a palindrome: start with a word and its reverse (live, evil), join them with a middle (Live not on evil), and then adjust the words until the letters match from both ends.
An anagram is a word or phrase made by rearranging all the letters of another word or phrase, using each letter exactly once. The word comes from Greek roots meaning "to write again".
| Word or phrase | Anagram or anagrams |
|---|---|
| listen | silent, tinsel, enlist, inlets |
| earth | heart, hater |
| stressed | desserts |
| evil | vile, live, veil |
| night | thing |
| dusty | study |
| angel | glean |
| brag | grab |
| cat | act |
| dear | read, dare |
| below | elbow |
| bored | robed |
| cried | dicer |
| stone | notes, onset, tones |
| save | vase |
| wasp | paws |
| rescue | secure |
| state | taste |
| sacred | scared, cedars |
| restful | fluster |
| lived | devil |
| marine | remain |
| plane | panel |
| snake | sneak |
| sister | resist |
| player | replay, parley |
| master | stream, tamers |
| ocean | canoe |
| trace | crate, cater, react, caret |
| least | stale, steal, tales, slate |
| mean | name, mane, amen |
| pale | leap, peal, plea |
| race | care, acre |
| dairy | diary |
| flow | fowl, wolf |
| tops | pots, stop, spot, post, opts |
| lemon | melon |
| rat | art, tar |
| mad | dam |
| tea | eat, ate |
| Elvis | lives |
| funeral | real fun |
| punishment | nine thumps |
| dormitory | dirty room |
| schoolmaster | the classroom |
| astronomer | moon starer |
| conversation | voices rant on |
| the eyes | they see |
| a gentleman | elegant man |
| debit card | bad credit |
| the Morse code | here come dots |
| the countryside | no city dust here |
| eleven plus two | twelve plus one |
| slot machines | cash lost in 'em |
| Statue of Liberty | built to stay free |
A tongue twister is a phrase that is difficult to say quickly because it repeats similar sounds. Tongue twisters are used by actors, newsreaders and teachers to train clear speech. Say each one slowly first, then gradually faster. Tap the speaker to hear it, then try to match the voice.
| Tongue twister | Sound practised |
|---|---|
| She sells seashells by the seashore. | s and sh |
| Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. | p |
| How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? | w and ch |
| Betty Botter bought some butter. | b and t |
| Red lorry, yellow lorry. | r and l |
| Unique New York. | n, y and k |
| Six slippery snails slid slowly seaward. | s and sl |
| I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. | s, sk and cr |
| Fresh French fried fish. | f, fr and sh |
| Which witch is which? | w, wh and ch |
| Thirty-three thirsty thieves thought thick thistles through. | th |
| A proper copper coffee pot. | p and k |
| Round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran. | r |
| Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better. | l, th and w |
| The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick. | s, sh, th |
| Four fine fresh fish for you. | f |
| Can you can a can as a canner can can a can? | k and n |
| How can a clam cram in a clean cream can? | cl, cr and k |
| A big black bug bit a big black bear. | b |
| Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely. | n |
| Selfish shellfish. | sh and f |
| Greek grapes. | gr and k |
| Susie works in a shoeshine shop. | s and sh |
| Eleven benevolent elephants. | l, v and n |
| Mixed biscuits. | ks, s and b |
| Rubber baby buggy bumpers. | b |
| Irish wristwatch. | r, sh and w |
| Flash message. | fl, sh and m |
| Black background, brown background. | bl and br |
| Denise sees the fleece, Denise sees the fleas. | s and z |
| Unusual New Zealand. | n and z |
| Good blood, bad blood. | b, d and bl |
| Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread. | f, t, d and br |
| How many cookies could a good cook cook if a good cook could cook cookies? | k and g |
| A tutor who tooted the flute tried to tutor two tooters to toot. | t |
Tips: say each twister three times without a mistake before you speed up, and record yourself for comparison. The speaker uses your device's voice. A famous early collection is Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation, published in 1813.
A pun plays on two meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike. Puns are common in headlines, adverts and jokes.
| Pun | Why it works |
|---|---|
| I used to be a baker, but I couldn't make enough dough. | dough means both bread mixture and money |
| I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down. | put down refers to gravity and to a gripping book |
| Why was the maths book sad? It had too many problems. | problems means exercises and troubles |
| Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field. | outstanding means excellent and standing out in a field |
| What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta. | impasta sounds like impostor |
| I would tell you a construction joke, but I'm still working on it. | working on it means building and still preparing |
| The graveyard is so crowded that people are dying to get in. | dying to means very eager and literally dying |
| A bicycle cannot stand on its own because it is two-tired. | two-tired sounds like too tired |
| Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. | flies and like change their part of speech |
| Why can't you trust an atom? They make up everything. | make up means form and invent |
| I was going to tell a joke about paper, but it is tearing me apart. | tearing means ripping and causing distress |
| I wondered why the football was getting bigger. Then it hit me. | hit me means struck and suddenly realised |
A spoonerism swaps the first sounds of two words. It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930) of Oxford, who is said to have made such slips. Many of the examples attributed to him are probably invented.
| Intended phrase | Spoonerism |
|---|---|
| a well-oiled bicycle | a well-boiled icicle |
| the dear old queen | the queer old dean |
| a crushing blow | a blushing crow |
| our loving shepherd | our shoving leopard |
| sons of toil | tons of soil |
| jelly bean | belly jean |
| you have missed my history lectures | you have hissed my mystery lectures |
| a lack of pies | a pack of lies |
A malapropism is the use of a wrong word that sounds like the right word, with a funny result. The term comes from Mrs Malaprop, a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy The Rivals (1775), whose name comes from the French mal à propos, meaning "not suitable".
| Correct phrase | Malapropism | Source |
|---|---|---|
| a nice arrangement of epithets | a nice derangement of epitaphs | Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals |
| the pinnacle of politeness | the pineapple of politeness | Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals |
| obliterate him from your memory | illiterate him from your memory | Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals |
| an alligator on the banks of the Nile | an allegory on the banks of the Nile | Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals |
A pangram uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. The best pangrams are short.
A lipogram leaves out a letter. Ernest Vincent Wright wrote an entire novel, Gadsby (1939), without using the letter e, and the French writer Georges Perec did the same in La Disparition (1969).
| Riddle | Answer |
|---|---|
| What has keys but cannot open locks? | a piano |
| What has a neck but no head? | a bottle |
| What has hands but cannot clap? | a clock |
| What gets wetter as it dries? | a towel |
| What has an eye but cannot see? | a needle |
| What can you catch but not throw? | a cold |
| What goes up but never comes down? | your age |
| What has teeth but cannot bite? | a comb |
| What building has the most stories? | a library |
| What has one head, one foot and four legs? | a bed |
| What runs but never walks? | a river |
| What is full of holes but still holds water? | a sponge |
| What begins with T, ends with T, and has T in it? | a teapot |
| Which word becomes shorter when you add two letters? | short |
In a word ladder, you change one letter at a time to turn one word into another. Every step must be a real word. The puzzle was invented by Lewis Carroll in 1877, who called it "Doublets".
| Start and end | Ladder |
|---|---|
| cold → warm | cold → cord → card → ward → warm |
| head → tail | head → heal → teal → tell → tall → tail |
| cat → dog | cat → cot → cog → dog |
Try it yourself: turn cold into hard, or pig into sty. There may be more than one correct ladder.
Activity: divide the class into teams. Round 1: write as many palindrome words as possible in two minutes. Round 2: solve ten anagrams. Round 3: each team performs one tongue twister, and the class judges clarity. Round 4: students write their own pun or riddle. Younger students can use pictures and short words, and older students can invent a short palindromic sentence.
Please note: this guide uses British spelling. Some anagrams, such as phrase anagrams, can vary, and some origins, such as the spoonerisms attributed to Spooner, are traditional and may not be exact.
10 questions. Select an answer for each, then submit to see your score instantly.