spoonerism

«spoonerism» in Mova's school dictionary: a slip of the tongue where you swap the first sounds of… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (a spoonerism, spoonerisms)

meaning for a pupil

1) A spoonerism is a slip of the tongue where you swap the first sounds of two words, often by accident and with a funny result: «a well-boiled icicle» instead of «a well-oiled bicycle». tree →

2) It is named after William Spooner, an Oxford teacher who was said to make this mistake often. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English and language lessons it is a fun wordplay puzzle, often used in jokes and olympiad word games; it shows how we plan sounds before we speak. Phrases: «make a spoonerism», «a famous spoonerism».

examples

• «Tease my ears» for «ease my tears» is a spoonerism. tree →
• Saying «fighting a liar» instead of «lighting a fire» is a spoonerism. tree →
• Our teacher made a spoonerism and said «bunny phone» for «funny bone». tree →
• Write three spoonerisms of your own. tree →
• Many famous spoonerisms were probably invented by Spooner's students. tree →
• A spoonerism swaps sounds, not letters: «chew the dores» for «do the chores». tree →

note

Countable. Spoonerisms swap sounds, so spelling may change. Most famous examples credited to Spooner were made up by others.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «spoonerism» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.