malapropism
part of speech
noun (a malapropism, malapropisms)
meaning for a pupil
The funny mistake of using a word that sounds like the right word but means something quite different: «He's the pineapple of politeness» instead of «pinnacle». tree →
sense in the lessons
A language lesson word. It comes from Mrs Malaprop, a character in Sheridan's play «The Rivals» (1775), who kept mixing up words. Malapropisms make people laugh in stories, comedy and real life. In Alice in Wonderland, Carroll's characters play with words in a similar way (the Mock Turtle studies «Reeling and Writhing» instead of Reading and Writing, which is a pun).
examples
- Saying «for all intensive purposes» instead of «for all intents and purposes» is a malapropism. tree →
- Grandad's malapropisms make us laugh. tree →
- «He's the pineapple of politeness» is a famous malapropism. tree →
- The comedian used lots of malapropisms. tree →
- Our teacher asked us to spot the malapropism in the sentence. tree →
- «Dance a flamingo» instead of «flamenco» is a malapropism. tree →
note
A malapropism is a mistake (the speaker means the real word); a pun is a joke made on purpose. Pronounced MAL-uh-prop-izm.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «malapropism» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.