Skeleton Puns

Welcome to the Punpedia entry on skeleton puns! 💀✨☠

While perhaps not as iconic as witches or zombies, bones and skeletons still occupy a large part of our culture, from movies (like Pirates of the Carribean or Coco) to annual celebrations (Day of the Dead). Join in on the bony fun with our skeleton puns, whether it’s for a word game, an undead-themed DnD night, or to help add a bit of kooky spook to your Halloween celebrations.

While we’ve been as thorough and comprehensive as possible in making this list, this is for skeletons in general – if you’re interested in other creatures and monsters, please have a look at our witch puns, zombie puns, Halloween puns and vampire puns. We hope you find the perfect skeleton pun for your needs!

Skeleton Puns List

Each item in this list describes a pun, or a set of puns which can be made by applying a rule. If you know of any puns about skeletons that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments at the end of this page! Without further ado, here’s our list of skeleton puns:

  • Skeleton: As in, “A skeleton in the closet,” and “Skeleton crew.” Note: a skeleton in your closet refers to a secret you have that you want to continue hiding. A skeleton crew is the minimum amount of people for a team to still be able to function.
  • Bone: As in, “A bone to pick,” and “Dry as a bone,” and “Bag of bones,” and “Bone of contention,” and “Bone weary,” and “Chilled to the bone,” and “Close to the bone,” and “Doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body,” and “Feel it in your bones,” and “Jump someone’s bones,” and “Lazy bones,” and “Skin and bone,” and “Sticks and stones may break my bones and words can contribute to systemic oppression,” and “The bare bones,” and “Work one’s fingers to the bones.”
  • *bon* → *bone*: As in, “Bone-us (bonus),” and “Bone-anza (bonanza),” and “Bone-afide (bonafide),” and “Trombone,” and “Rib-bone (ribbon),” and “Car-bone (carbon),” and “Bour-bone (bourbon)” and “Bone-jour (bonjour)” and “Saxo-bone.”
  • Blown → Bone: As in, “Bone off course,” and “You’ve just bone it!” and “You’ve bone it out of proportion.”
  • Pony → Bony: As in, “A one-trick bony,” and “Show bony,” and “Bony up.” Notes: A one-trick pony is someone who has only one skill or specialisation. To pony up is to pay a bill or debt.
  • Born → Bone: As in, “A star is bone,” and “Bone this way,” and “Bone under a lucky star,” and “I wasn’t bone yesterday,” and “A natural bone leader.”
  • *lone → *bone: As in, “Home a-bone,” and “I want to be a-bone,” and “It’s bonely at the top,” and “Bonely hearts.”
  • Bond → Boned: As in, “James Boned,” and “I share a special boned with you.”
  • Phone → Bone: As in, “Hanging up the tele-bone,” and “Where’s my cellbone?”
  • Humorous → Humerus: As in, “These skeleton puns are not very humerus.” Note: the humerus is long bone in the upper arm.
  • To be → Tibia: As in, “Not all it’s cracked up tibia,” and “Nowhere tibia found,” and “Tibia perfectly honest,” and “Better tibia safe than sorry,” and “You’ve got tibia kidding.” Note: the tibia is the shinbone.
  • Skill* → Skull: As in, “Social skulls,” and “Very skullful,” and “This skull-et needs cleaning.”
  • Sculpt* → Skull-pt: As in, “I will skull-pt this character,” and “What a beautiful skull-pture.”
  • Skull: As in, “Bombed out of your skull.”
  • Nicolas Cage → Nicolas Ribcage
  • Ribs: As in, “Stop ribbing me,” and “Crack a rib laughing.” Note: ribbing is good-natured teasing.
  • *rib*: Emphasise the “rib” in certain words to make skeleton puns: “Distribute,” and “Contribute,” and “Attribute,” and “Ribbon,” and “Dribble,” and “Crib.”
  •  Funny Bone: As in, “Tickle your funny bone.” Note: If something tickles your funny bone, then you find something humorous (or more appropriately, humerus).
  •  Jaw: As in, “Jaw-dropping,” and “Jaws of death,” and “Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat,” and “Slack-jawed,” and “Jawbone,” and “Jawline,” and “Jaw-breaker.” Note: if you are slack-jawed, then your jaw is open and loose in an expression of astonishment.
  • Helicopter → Skelecopter: As in, “Skelecopter parent.” Note: a helicopter parent is one who is overprotective – always “hovering” around their child. 
  • Marrow: As in, “Frozen to the marrow.” Note: bone marrow is a type of tissue within bones that produces new blood cells.
  • Narrow → Marrow: As in, “Keep on the straight and marrow,” and “A marrow escape,” and “Marrow minded.”
  • Tomorrow → To-marrow: As in, “To-marrow is another day,” and “As if there were no to-marrow,” and “Here today, gone to-marrow,” and “Never put off until to-marrow what you can do today.”
  • Jack Sparrow → Jacks Marrow
  • Spine: As in, “Send shivers down your spine,” and “Spine-tingling,” and “Steely-spined.”
  • Spying → Spine: As in, “Are you spine on me?”
  • Sign → Spine: As in, “Give me a spine,” and “A spine of the times,” and “Spine on the dotted line,” and “Spined and sealed,” and “A tell-tale spine,” and “Vital spines,” and “Dollar spines,” and “A warning spine.”
  • Pine* → Spine*: As in, “Spine-apple flavoured,” and “Spine-ing away.” Note: to be pining is to long for someone or something.
  • Span* → Spine*: As in, “Put a spine-ner in the works,” and “Spick and spine,” and “Brand spine-king new.”
  • Fabulous → Fibula-ous: As in, “Absolutely fibula-ous.” Note: the fibula is the bone in your calf next to your shinbone (aka tibia).
  • Fib → Fibula: As in, “Stop telling fibulas.”
  • Fever → Femur: As in, “Cabin femur,” and “Femur pitch,” and “Jungle femur,” and “Running a femur,” and “Saturday night femur.” Notes: cabin fever is anxiety that stems from feeling cooped up in one place for too long. Fever pitch is a state of extremely strong emotion.
  • Carpool → Carpal: As in, “I think Uber allows for carpals now.” Note: carpooling is ride-sharing.
  • Carpe diem → Carpal diem (Note: carpe diem is Latin for “seize the day”, which is used as a motivational phrase.)
  • Draw → Jaw: As in, “Back to the jaw-ing board,” and “Jaw a blank,” and “Jaw a line in the sand,” and “Luck of the jaw,” and “Jaw your last breath,” and “Jaw the short straw.”
  • Drawer → Jaw-er: As in, “Bottom jaw-er,” and “Drop your jaw-ers.”
  • Stern → Sternum: As in, “Made of sternum stuff,” and “From stem to sternum.” Note: the sternum is the breastbone. If something is done from stem to stern, then it has been done completely and in its entirety, from one end to the other.
  • Turn him → Sternum: As in, “Sternum in to the police!”
  • Back → Backbone: As in, “As soon as my backbone is turned,” and “In the backbone of my mind,” and “Break your backbone,” and “Get off my backbone,” and “Like water off a duck’s backbone,” and “Watch your backbone,” and “Scratch my backbone and I’ll scratch yours.” Note: Water off a duck’s back refers to an attitude where criticism and judgement doesn’t bother you.
  • Bone → Backbone: As in, “A backbone to pick,” and “Dry as a backbone,” and “A bag of backbones,” and “A backbone to pick with you,” and “Backbone up on,” and “Chilled to the backbone,” and “Not a jealous backbone in his body,” and “Make no backbones about,” and “Bad to the backbone.” Notes: having a bone to pick with someone means having a disagreement that needs talking over.
  • Socket: As in, “Plug it into the socket.”
  • Knee: As in, “Down on bended knee,” and “Knee deep,” and “A knee-jerk reaction,” and “Shaking knees,” and “The bee’s knees.”
  • *nee* → *knee*: Make skeleton puns by changing words with a “nee” sound to “knee”: “Brai-knee (brainy),”, “Kneedle,” and “Kneedy,” and “Nomi-knee (nominee),”, “Trai-knee (trainee),”, “A-knee-time (anytime),”, “Abalo-knee,”, “Accompa-kneed,”, “Ac-knee (acne),”, “Ago-knee (agony),”, “Am-knee-sia (amnesia),”, “A-knee (any),” and “Brow-knee,”, “Bun-knee,” and “Ceremo-knee,”, “Chim-knee,”, “Compa-knee,”, “Pen-knee,”, “Harmo-knee-ca (harmonica),” and “Harmo-knee,” and “Glutto-knee,”, “Engi-knee-r (engineer),”, “Epipha-knee,” and “Felo-knee,” and “Fettuci-knee,”, “Ho-knee-dew (honeydew),” and “Ho-knee-moon,”, “Jour-knee,” and “Mahoga-knee,” and “Mille-knee-a (millenia),”, “Mi-knee,”, “Monoto-knee (monotony),” and “Knee-t (neat).” There are many other words that rhyme with or contain the sound “nee” so be creative!
  • Join/joined → Join-t: As in, “If you can’t beat ’em, join-t em,” and “Join-t forces,” and “Join-t hands in celebration,” and “Join-t the club,” and “Join-t the dots,” and “Joint at the hip.”
  • Joy → Joy-nt: As in, “Beside myself with joy-nt,” and “Bundle of joy-nt,” and “Joy-nt rider,” and “Joy-nt to the world,” and “My pride and joy-nt.”
  • High → Hyoid: As in, “Ain’t no mountain hyoid enough,” and “An all-time hyoid,” and “Hyoid as a kite,” and “Come hell or hyoid water,” and “Get off your hyoid horse,” and “Hyoid and mighty,” and “It’s hyoid time you put some effort in,” and “Hold your head hyoid,” and “Take the hyoid road.” Note: the hyoid is a bone in the neck.
  • Truth → Tooth: As in, “An inconvenient tooth,” and “Economical with the tooth,” and “Tell the tooth!” and “Face the tooth,” and “A kernel of tooth,” and “The naked tooth,” and “Sniff out the tooth,” and “Tooth is stranger than fiction,” and “You can’t handle the tooth!” and “A toothful character.” Note: to be economical with the truth is to make efforts to avoid revealing too much of the truth.
  • Tooth: As in, “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,” and “Fight tooth and nail,” and “A sweet tooth.”
  • Knock → Knuckle: As in, “Don’t knuckle it til you’ve tried it,” and “I get knuckle’d down, but I get up again,” and “Knuckle back a few,” and “Knuckle heads together,” and “Knuckle into shape,” and “Knuckle it out of the park,” and “Knuckle it off!” and “Knuckle on wood,” and “Knuckle me sideways,” and “Knuckle your socks off,” and “Opportunity only knuckles once,” and “Knuckle me down with a feather.” Notes: Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it means to not criticise something until you understand it.
  • Tell us → Talus: As in, “Talus something new,” and “Talus a story!” Note: the talus is a bone in the ankle joint.
  • Bow and arrow → Bone and marrow
  • Lumberjack → Lumbarjack (Note: the lumbar is the lower part of the spine.)
  • Cock* → Coccyx: As in, “Proud as a pea-coccyx,” and “A coccyx and bull story.” Note: a cock and bull story is an unbelievable or implausible story.
  • I’ll not → Ulna’t: As in, “Don’t worry, ulna’t tell anyone.” (Note: the ulna is the long bone in the forearm.)
  • Uma Thurman → Ulna Thurman 

Skeleton-Related Words

To help you come up with your own skeleton puns, here’s a list of related words to get you on your way. If you come up with any new puns or related words, please feel free to share them in the comments!

skeleton, skeletal, bone, endoskeleton, humerus, jaw, phalange, skull, socket, joint, rib cage, funny bone, tibia, marrow, spine, fibula, femur, patella, cranium, carpal, sternum, backbone, knuckle, coccyx, scapula, knee, pelvis, hyoid, clavicle, tooth, vertebrate, fracture, calcium

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