punning

I would ban anyone who engages in punning like this.

The Volokh Conspiracy » Everything Old Is New Again 2010

It was frustrated ancient scribes who first realized the limitations of literal pictographs and began decoupling and recombining sounds, symbols and meanings—in short, punning—to invent history's first true alphabet.

What in the Word? Rules For Better Punmanship John Pollack 2011

She must avoid frequent attempts at wit; avoid punning, which is the cheapest possible form of wit; and avoid sarcasm.

Letters to a Daughter and A Little Sermon to School Girls Helen Ekin Starrett

He's recovering well and punning, which is the true measure of his recovery.

Stormwolf.com 2009

Headline writers are often given to paronomasia (which they would probably call punning, as paronomasia, which would not fit into most headlines, is not in their vocabulary).

VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XVIII No 1 1991

I at once looked on the figure of the animal as a kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature.

The Gold-Bug 2006

I at once looked upon the figure of the animal as a kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature.

The Short-story William Patterson Atkinson

I at once looked on the figure of the animal as a kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature.

Short Stories for English Courses Rosa Mary Redding [Editor] Mikels

You bet she would, I thought: for, with a flash of that outrageous inward punning which is too swift for the reason to control, I had had, absurdly enough, a tantalising vision of the curtain going up on Scheherazade.

Try Anything Twice 1938

Lamb considered them to be a kind of punning, but in one case the same position, in the other the same signification is given to words of the same sound.

History of English Humour, Vol. 2 (of 2) Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange 1873