Which term describes a joke exploiting different meanings of a word or words that sound alike?

• A. Pun
• B. Idiom
• C. Alliteration
• D. Imagery

Answer: (A)

The idea here is a kind of humor built on wordplay that relies on more than one meaning or on sounds that are alike. That makes a pun the best fit. A pun twists language by treating a word as if it has multiple meanings or by swapping in a sound-alike word for humorous effect. For example, a joke like “I used to be a baker, but I couldn't make enough dough” plays on dough as both bread mixture and money. An idiom is a phrase whose meaning isn’t obvious from the individual words, not a joke about multiple meanings or sounds. Alliteration repeats the same initial consonant sounds in nearby words, and imagery uses sensory detail to create mental pictures. So the term described is the pun.