Shark Puns

Sharks! That’s what this Punpedia entry is all about. Shark puns overlap a little with the entries on dolphin puns, beach puns, water puns, and fish puns, so feel free to check out those articles for some related wordplay. Shark puns often centre around a few key topics: fins, jaws, names of species, and a few other shark-related topics.

As with all entries on Punpedia, if you’ve got a great pun, you can post it in the comments and one of our curators will add it to this entry. And if you’re looking for visual puns, there’s a collection of visual shark puns towards the end of this entry.

Shark Puns List

Each item in this list of shark puns is either a simple word-swap (e.g. Something → Somefin) or it may be a general rule from which multiple puns can be made. In the case of general rules, the asterisk sign (*) represents one or more letters.

  • Something → Some fin: As in “There’s some fin about the way he walks” and “Is that a fish, or some fin else?”
  • Nothing → No fin: As in “No fin is better than swimming with dolphins” and “I’ve got no fin left to give!”
  • Anything → Any fin: As in “Any fin goes.” and “I never said any fin!”
  • *thing → *fin: Generalising on the “some fin”, “any fin” and “no fin” examples, we can often replace “thing” with “fin” when it occurs at the end of the word: everyfin, clo-fin (clothing), breafin (breathing), soo-fin (soothing), scafin (scathing), sunbafin’ (sunbathing), sleufin’ (sleuthing), wrifin’ (writhing), blacksmifin’ (blacksmithing), bequeafin’ (bequeathing), frofin’ (frothing), locksmifin’ (locksmithing), badmoufin’ (badmouthing).
  • Thin → Fin: As in “Vanished into fin air.” and “You’re skating on fin ice.”
  • *thin* → *fin*: Some words that contain “thin” can become “fin” puns: airworfiness (airworthiness), freefinkers (freethinkers), newsworfiness (newsworthiness), stealfiness (stealthiness), wealfiness (wealthiness).
  • Think  → Fink: As in “I fink we should stop.”
  • Thin*  → Fin*: If a word begins with “thin”, we can make “fin” puns: finking (thinking), fink (think), finker (thinker), finning (thinning).
  • Fan* → Fin*: “fan” can sometimes be replaced with “fin” at the start of words to create fin puns: fintastic (fantastic), finciful (fanciful), finfare (fanfare), fintasy, findom, finciful.
  • Fine/Fin./Find/Fun → Fin: The word “fin” can be used to replace many small words than have both ‘f’ and ‘n’ like “fun” and “find”. The term “fin” also a French word meaning “finish”, and so is sometimes seen at the end of old films and books.
  • *fin*: If a word contains “fin”, it’s an easy fish pun: affinity, coffin, definitive, definitively, finch, finesse, finishfinished, finnish, finland, infinity, infinitesimal.
  • In* → Fin*: A lovely and shameful pun can be made from any word starting with “in”. Simply replace “in” with “fin”: finformation, finfluence, finvolve, finternational, finvolved, fintroduce, findeed, finvestment, finto, finclude, finteresting, fintellectual, finjury, fintend, finterview, finsurance, finstrument, … Thousands more can be made with the help of a list like this.
  • *fici* → *fishi*: If a word contains “fici” it can often be replaced with “fishi”. Here are some examples: affishionado, artifishial, benefishial, coeffishient, defishiency, defishit, ineffishient, suffishient, ofishial, profishient, superfishial.
  • Issue → Fishue: As in “That’s not the fishue here though.” and “I was fishued a sign for parking without a ticket”.
  • Killer: As in “These jokes are just killer!” and “Oh wow, that was a killer shark pun you just made.”
  • Door salesperson → Dorsals-person: As in “Door-to-dorsals people are really annoying.” and “Does anyone actually buy things from dorsalsmen?”
  • *tail: Sharks have a tail, so if you’re stretching for an extra shark pun, words containing tail like entail, detail, retail and cocktail may just get you over the line.
  • Dive: As in “The stock market took a dive today,” and “I tried to dive for the ball to intercept it,” and “This relationship has really taken a dive lately.”
  • Finland: As in “I head Finland has great shark puns.”
  • Jawdropping → Jawsdropping: “Jaws” is the name of a popular film series about a killer shark.
  • Yours → Jaws: As in “I didn’t know it was Jaws!” and “I’m all jaws.”
  • Awesome → Jawsome: As in “Jawsome pun, mate.”
  • Snappy: As in “That was a snappy comeback!” and “Well, there’s no need to get snappy.”
  • Chump → Chomp: As in “Yeah, he is a bit of a chomp.”
  • May co* → Mako*: A mako sharks are a well known category of sharks. Example sentences: “He makome with us if he wants” and “Let’s makonversation to be polite.” There are thousands of terrible shark puns to be made using this formula. See this list of words starting with “co” to help you make your own.
  • Make a → Mako: As in “I’m trying really hard to mako shark pun here.”
  • Girl → Gill: As in “Our little gill grew up so fast!”
  • *gil* → *gill*: If a word contains the “gill” sound, replacing it the letters “gill” is an easy homographic fish pun: gillt (guilt), gillbert (gilbert), gillotine (guillotine), gilld (guild), gilligan, gillded (gilded). We can also make (somewhat more laboured) gill puns by using words with the “jill” sound: a-gill-ity (agility), fra-gill-ity (fragility).
  • Serration: Shark teeth have evolved to rely on serration to tear manageable chunks from their prey. In the right context this might work as a subtle shark pun.
  • Reef: Words containing a “reef”-like sound can be made into homographic puns by switching in “reef”: greef (grief), breef (brief), breefcase (briefcase), preefabricated (prefabricated), preefer (prefer), reefill, reeflexes, reefunds, reefurbishment, reefreshed, reefuel, shereef (sheriff), threefold.
  • Tope: The term “tope” is a verb meaning “to drink alcohol in excess, especially regularly”, and it also refers to a type of small, greyish, slender shark.
  • Requiem: The term “requiem” refers to an act or token of remembrance, especially a Catholic mass held in remembrance of the dead. The term also refers to a large family of sharks (including tiger sharks, blacktip sharks, and many of the species involved in attacks on humans).
  • Bonnethead: A bonnethead is a small, harmless shark in the hammerhead family. It sounds like an insult and could be used if you need one with a shark-themed pun: “Stop being such a bonnet head.”
  • Great white: As in “That’s a great white lie and you know it.” and “Look at that great white cloud!” You may also get away with using “big white” as a more subtle pun.
  • Frenzy: Sharks are known for their tendency for “feeding frenzies” when hunting in shivers (a group of sharks). Slipping “frenzy” in  place of words like these may work as a subtle shark themed pun: hysteria, madness, mania, delirium, feverishness, fever, wildness, agitation, turmoil, tumult, wild, excitement.
  • Cookie-cutter: A cookie-cutter shark is a species that bites chunks or “plugs” of flesh out of larger marine animals. There is a potential for wordplay with the original definition of “cookie-cutter” and the definition that means “template”.
  • What an animal → Water animal: As in “Water animal you’ve become.”
  • *ways → *waves: Words than end in “ways” can be made into bad wave puns: alwaves (always), railwaves (railways), sidewaves, pathwaves, lengthwaves, doorwaves.
  • *cy → *sea: If a word ends in “cy” it’s an easy “sea” pun: polisea, agensea, democrasea, currensea, emergensea, efficiensea, tendensea, frequensea, fansea, constituensea, pregnansea, accurasea, redundansea, bureaucrasea, presidensea, legasea, conspirasea, mersea, privasea, bankruptsea, consistensea, literasea, urgensea, deficiensea, dependency, consultansea, tenacity, isea (icy), secrecy, intimasea. See ocean puns entry for more.
  • Se* → Sea*: Some words that start with just “se” also have a “sea”-ish sound: seacret, searious, seargeant, seacretion, seacure, seacurity, seacondary, seacretariat, seaconds, seacrete, searum, searenity, searvitude. See ocean puns entry for more.
  • Sea*: Most words starting with “sea” are easy sea puns: season, seasonal, seated, searingly, sealants, seam. See ocean puns entry for more.
  • See* → Sea*: If a word starts with “see” it can often be replaced with “sea” to create a simple sea pun: seaminly, seads, seaker, seathe, seap, seak, sean, sea (see). See ocean puns entry for more.
  • Man, eating: As in “Man, eating junk food is the worst.” and “Man, eating your words now, aren’t you?.”
  • My neat → Man-eat: As in “Man-eat puns are too good for you.” and “It’s man-eat-ness that helps me stay organised.”
  • Shock → Shark: As in “I was still shivering from shark.”
  • Thin → Fin: As in “Vanished into fin air.” and “You’re skating on fin ice.”
  • Nurse: The nurse sharks are a well-known family of sharks. Regular usage of “nurse”: “Yes, he’s a registered nurse.”
  • Chum: This is a name for chopped fish and fish fluids thrown overboard, often as a shark attractor. Examples of regular usage: “My old chums.” and “We became friends while chumming down at the jetty.”
  • Shirk → Shark: As in “Stop sharking your responsibilities and get the job done.”
  • Pup: A young shark is called a “pup“, and the term is often used (in slang) to describe a young person (especially a cheeky boy).
  • Shiver: When sharks travel in groups, they’re called “shivers”. Example sentence: “Shark puns give me the shivers.”
  • Mega load on → Megalodon: A very specific pun about a famous extinct shark species weighing over 80 tonnes. Example: “I’m too busy, my boss has put a megalodon my shoulders this week.”
  • Predator: Sharks are known for being the “predators” of the sea. Used in the right sharky context, this can be subtle wordplay.
  • Pray → Prey: As in “Just hope and prey that no one gets eaten by a shark.”
  • *prah* → *prey*: Words containing the “prah” sound (or similar) can be turned into abominable “prey” puns: entre-prey-neurial (entrepreneurial), incom-prey-hensible (incomprehensible), misinter-prey-t, dis-prey-portionately, prep-prey-tory, tem-prey-turere-prey-sentation, un-prey-fessional, re-prey-duction.
  • *pri* → *prey*: An easy set of terribly laboured shark puns can be made of words containing “pri”: prey-vatisation (privatisation), prey-mordial (primordial), prey-cing (pricing), prey-de (pride), pro-prey-ietary (proprietary).
  • Basking: Basking sharks are the second largest fish in existence (after the whale shark). The usual definitions of “bask” (“basking in the sun”) can be used as puns in the right context.
  • Busking → Basking: As in “There was basker playing on my street today.”
  • Tiger: This is a play on tiger shark. As in “Easy there tiger!” and “She’s a tiger on the tennis court.”
  • Nas*  → Gnash: Sharks do a lot of gnashing (striking their teeth together) while trying to get their jaws around prey. If a word starts with a “nas” sound (or similar) it may work as a shark pun: gnashty (nasty), gnashtalgic (nostalgic), gnashville, gnash-onalistic (nationalistic), gnashtrils (nostrils), gnasha (nasa).
  • A tacky  → Attacky: Sharks are famous mostly because of their deadly attacks on humans, so the word “attack” is perhaps closely link to “shark” for it to be a shark pun by itself: “That was attacky shark pun.”

Shark-Related Phrases

Common phrases, idioms and cliches which are related to sharks can be used for some subtle and witty word play. Here is a list of the shark themed phrases that we’ve found so far:

  • Flesh and blood
  • Ankle biter
  • Swim with sharks
  • Shark repellent
  • Shark bait
  • Armed to the teeth
  • Wouldn’t shout if a shark bit him
  • Jumping the shark
  • Voodoo shark
  • Set your teeth on edge
  • Going swimmingly
  • Easy tiger
  • Load shark
  • Card shark
  • A fine kettle of fish
  • A drop in the ocean
  • A sea change
  • Out of the jaws of death
  • Corporate shark
  • Swimming along nicely
  • A fish out of water
  • Plenty of fish in the sea
  • Something fishy about that
  • Something smells fishy
  • Bigger fish to fry
  • Chomping at the bit
  • Fishing for compliments
  • A biting review
  • Sink one’s teeth into
  • Stewed to the gills
  • To fish in troubled waters
  • Devil and the deep blue sea
  • Hammer something out
  • Send shivers down one’s spine (A shiver is a group of sharks)

Shark-Related Words

There are always more puns to be invented! Here’s a list of shark-related words to help you out. If you come up with any new shark puns, please share them in the comments!

fish, ocean, sea, beach, waves, fin, dorsal, dorsal fin, teeth, jaws, chomp, bite, gnash, hammerhead, pectoral fin, chondrichthyes, mako, megalodon, isurus, cartilage, thresher, predator, prey, saltwater, underwater, river shark, basking shark, tiger, pelargic, porbeagle, benthic, tiger shark, viviparous, cartilaginous, blood, violent, violence, piscine, ventral fin, tail fin, gills, gill, gill slit, pelvic fin, spiracle, snout, caudal, caudal fin, serration, marine, reef shark, water animal, underwater, carnivorous, tope, dogfish, great white, requiem shark, shovelhead, shovelnose, white pointer, blue pointer, pup, man-eater, man-eating, bonnethead, great blue shark, grey nurse, bull shark, nightmare, chum, chumming, megamouth, catshark, smoothhound, cookiecutter, tiburion, stinkard, sand shark, land shark, wobbegong, shiver, rogue, mermaid’s purse, pilot fish, shagreen, rousette, squaloid, squalus, feeding frenzy, territorial, shark attack

Shark Jokes

If you’re looking for extremely corny shark jokes, then you’ve come to the right place. Most of these jokes rely on some sort of pun for their punchline. Tap or hover on the black rectangle to show the answer.

  • What kind of sharks make good carpenters? – Hammerheads!
  • How did the shark plead in its murder trial? – Not gill-ty!
  • Where do sharks go on vacation? – Finland!
  • I was at the beach today when I saw a man in the sea yelling “Help, shark! Help!” – I just laughed. I knew that shark wasn’t going to help him.
  • What happened to the shark who swallowed a bunch of keys? – It got lockjaw.
  • What’s a shark’s favorite bible story? – Noah’s Shark
  • The last ten times I’ve been to a fancy dress party, I’ve gone as a shark. – The joke’s wearing fin.
  • It’s my ambition to see a great white shark before I die. – Just not right before I die.
  • The star attraction at my local aquarium has been repossessed. – Turns out it was a loan shark.
  • What do you can the mushy stuff stuck between a great white’s shark teeth? – Slow swimmers!
  • What do you call rubber bumpers on yachts? – Shark absorbers.
  • What kind of shark is always gambling? – A card shark!
  • How did the hammerhead do on his test? – He nailed it!
  • I had a nightmare about being attacked by a shark. – When I woke up I realized it was just a bream.
  • What kind of hobby does a shark like best? – Anything he can sink his teeth into.
  • I’ve just seen a huge killer fish singing and playing guitar in the city center – I think it must be a busking shark.
  • If a shark is after you, what should your feed it?  – Jawbreakers!
  • Who is the most famous shark playwright?  – William Sharkspeare!
  • What do you get when you cross a shark with a snowman? – Frostbite!

Shark Pun Images

We’ve scoured the internet and managed to gather together all the visual shark puns (memes, comics, etc.) that we could. If you’ve made or found any more, please share a link to it in the comments!

Did this Punpedia article help you?

All stocked up on shark puns? Or maybe you’re looking for something more specific that wasn’t in this entry? More shark jokes? More visual puns? A bigger list of shark puns that you can use in conversation? Whatever the case, please let us know in the comments! One of our curators or a member of the Punpedia community will do their best to help you out. And as always, if you have any shark puns that we don’t, please share them with us in the comments! Thanks for visiting Punpedia 🙂