{"id":7368,"date":"2020-05-14T15:06:53","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T19:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=7368"},"modified":"2020-05-14T15:06:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T19:06:53","slug":"fun-with-english-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/fun-with-english-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun with English Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7369\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7369\" class=\"size-large wp-image-7369\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters-1024x679.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"679\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters-1024x679.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters-350x232.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters-768x509.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7369\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by M. Maggs from Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Let\u2019s have some fun, shall we? Wordplay is generally defined as the clever use of words and their meanings. Puns are the best examples of wordplay, I think. But, sometimes, just finding something unexpected in words can make you smile. There\u2019s even a word for wordplay. It\u2019s called <strong>logology<\/strong>, or recreational linguistics. So, let\u2019s dig into English words to find some peculiarities and surprises.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll begin with one of the best-known examples \u2013 the <strong>palindrome<\/strong>. A palindrome is a word, name, sentence, or more that reads the same backward and forward. The earliest example I ever encountered was the name Fred Derf, a character on an old sitcom. Later, I fell in love with palindromes and looked for them everywhere. Some favorites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dennis sinned.<\/li>\n<li>Was it a rat I saw?<\/li>\n<li>Never odd or even.<\/li>\n<li>Rise to vote, sir!<\/li>\n<li>Name, now, one man.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anagrams<\/strong> are also fun. An anagram is the rearrangement of letters in a word or phrase to create an entirely different word or phrase. Rearrange the letters in the equation \u201ctwelve plus one\u201d and you get the equation \u201celeven plus two.\u201d The answer to each question below is an anagram to something within the question. Answers can be found at the end of this post.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>In the summer, I\u2019ll order a large size of what kind of beer?<\/li>\n<li>What was the explanation for why Janice\u2019s debit card was rejected?<\/li>\n<li>Even though he was over fifty, what age did Malcolm claim to be?<\/li>\n<li>Talented monkeys write for which well-known publication?<\/li>\n<li>What legendary film star is known for old west action movies?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Isograms <\/strong>are words in which no letter appears more than once. Three and four-letter words are common isograms, but it\u2019s fun to find some longer isograms. Here are a few:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Uncopyrightable \u2013 Something which cannot be given copyright status.<\/li>\n<li>Thumbscrew \u2013 A torture device<\/li>\n<li>Ambidextrously \u2013 To be able to do something well either righthanded or lefthanded.<\/li>\n<li>Binoculars \u2013 An optical instrument with lenses for both eyes.<\/li>\n<li>Lexicography \u2013 The practice of compiling dictionaries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Contranyms <\/strong>are words that can also mean their exact opposites. Also called <strong>Janus words<\/strong>, I wrote my first blog about these uncommon words back in 2016<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote \" data-mfn=\"1\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"0000000000002f0d0000000000000000_7368\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-0000000000002f0d0000000000000000_7368-1\">1<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-0000000000002f0d0000000000000000_7368-1\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"1\">https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/what-is-a-janus-word\/<\/span>. Let\u2019s look at a few more.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Refrain: To cease doing something\/Something which repeats itself<\/li>\n<li>Shop: To go out to purchase something\/To sell something<\/li>\n<li>Variety: A general category of something\/A particular type of something<\/li>\n<li>Trip: A short stumble\/A long journey<\/li>\n<li>Transparent: Something which is obvious\/Something which is invisible<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0Can you think of some other favorite examples of wordplay? Please offer them in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Anagram Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Large \u2013 Lager<\/li>\n<li>Debit card \u2013 Bad credit<\/li>\n<li>Over fifty \u2013 forty five<\/li>\n<li>Monkeys write \u2013 New York Times<\/li>\n<li>Old west action \u2013 Clint Eastwood<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"modern-footnotes-list modern-footnotes-list--show-only-for-print\"><li><span>1<\/span><div>https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/what-is-a-janus-word\/<\/div><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"232\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters-350x232.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters-350x232.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters-1024x679.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters-768x509.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/05\/Letters.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Let\u2019s have some fun, shall we? Wordplay is generally defined as the clever use of words and their meanings. Puns are the best examples of wordplay, I think. But, sometimes, just finding something unexpected in words can make you smile. There\u2019s even a word for wordplay. It\u2019s called logology, or recreational linguistics. So, let\u2019s dig&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/fun-with-english-words\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":7369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[135139],"tags":[536746,251399],"class_list":["post-7368","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-language","tag-logology","tag-wordplay"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7371,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7368\/revisions\/7371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}