Ocean Puns

Welcome to the Punpedia entry on ocean puns! 🌊 Whether you’re after some puns for your beach party invites, instagram captions, or you just like puns about the sea, I hope this entry serves you well. There’s word play around all sorts of ocean-related concepts including wave puns, seashell puns, sand puns and lots more. This entry has a lot in common with the beach punswater puns and fish puns entries, so check them out if you don’t find what you’re looking for here 🙂

Ocean 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 the ocean that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments at the end of this page! Without further ado, here’s the list of ocean puns:

  • Specific → Pacific: As in “You need to be more pacific.” and “Are you sure you have the pacifications for this?” and “Pacifically, there are two apples and three nectarines”.
  • *ways → *waves: Words than end in “ways” can be made into bad wave puns: alwaves (always), railwaves (railways), sidewaves, pathwaves, lengthwaves, doorwaves.
  • Waive → Wave: As in, “Could you wave this parking ticket?” Note: to waive something is to refrain from enforcing.
  • Sway → S-wave: As in, “S-wave with me,” and “You don’t hold any s-wave here.” Note: to hold sway is to have a position of influence or power.
  • Surf: “Surf the net”
  • Serve → Surf: As in “First come, first surfed” and “If memory surfs” and “Revenge is a dish best surfed cold” and “Surfs you right”
  • Service → Surfice: As in, “A better surfice all round,” and “At your surfice,” and “Normal surfice has been resumed,” and “Out of surfice.”
  • Wave: “Wave goodbye” and “Mexican wave” and “Heat wave” and “Wave the white flag” and “Brain waves
  • Title → Tidal: As in “I like it, but I’m not sure on the tidal” and “Use ‘Ms.’ as her tidal” and “The championship tidal match is tomorrow morning.”
  • Tied → Tide: As in “I’m tide up at the moment, can someone else help?” and “Yep, they tide the knot!”
  • Passivist → Pascificist: As in “I’m a pascificst. Violence is never the answer.”
  • Atlantic: There is a well-known newspaper called “The Atlantic”, which might be used to make an Atlantic ocean pun somehow.
  • Deep: “Deep and meaningful” and “Deep, dark secret” and “Go off the deep end” and “In deep water” and “Skin deep” and “Thrown into the deep end”
  • Total → Turtle: As in “A turtle stranger”
  • Tidy → Tidey: As in “After the party we need to tidey the beach.”
  • Send → Sand: As in “It sands shivers down my spine!” and “Sand him over here.”
  • San* → Sand*: Replacing “san” with “sand” when it is at the start of a word give some nice corny puns: sanditary (sanitary), sandctioned (sanctioned), sandctuary (sanctuary), sandguine (sanguine), sandctions (sanctions).
  • Stand → Sand: As in, “Don’t sand so close to me,” and “Do you undersand?” and “Don’t just sand there!” and “I saw her sanding there,” and “My hair was sanding on end,” and “If you can’t sand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” and “It sands to reason,” and “A one night sand,” and “Sand on your own two feet,” and “Sand out from the crowd,” and “Sand up and be counted,” and “Sand up for yourself,” and “A sand up guy,” and “Do I sand a chance?” and “I sand corrected,” and “I’m sanding in for…” and “I can’t sand the sight of,” and “I could do it sanding on my head,” and “United we sand.”
  • Not → Naut: As in “I’m naut going to keep arguing with you”.
  • Naughty → Nauty: As in “There’s that nauty sailor again”.
  • Gullible → Seagullible: As in “Kyani is so seagullible!”
  • Crazy → Cray-sea: As in “He is so craysea!” and “Enough of this crayseaness!”. Hyphen is, of course, optional.
  • Wish → Fish: As in “I just fish we had more time!” and “If you rub the lamp you get three fishes“.
  • About/Abode → Aboat: As in “What aboat the captain?” and “Welcome to my aboat!”
  • Sooner → Schooner: As in “Schooner or later.” and “I’ll call her schoon“. A “schooner” is a sailing ship with two or more masts.  See the boat puns entry for more.
  • Sel* → Sail*: If a word starts with “sel” a boat pun can often be made by replacing it with “sail”: sailection (selection), sailect (select), sailf (self), sailling (selling), sail (sell), saildom (seldom), sailfish (selfish), sailfless (selfless), sailective (selective).
  • Bae → Bay: As in “Bay! Please stop with the ocean puns, you’re embarrassing me.”
  • Bitch → Beach: As in “Those beaches don’t know me!” and “He says you were being a bit beachy“.
  • Combine → Combrine: As in “With our power combrined we should be able to defeat them.” and “It’s what you get when you combrine salt and water”. Similar puns can be made for most words ending in “bine”: turbrine (turbine), concubrine (concubine), columbrine (columbine).
  • Sure → Shore: As in “Are you shore?” and “She shore is strong!” and “I shore will.”
  • Whatever → Waterever: As in “Waterever, I don’t care.” and “Do waterever you want”.
  • What her → Water: As in “I know water problem is.” and “Do you know water mother thinks about this?”.
  • What do → Water: As in “Water you think about this?”
  • What about → Water boat: As in “Water boat we have tofu curry for dinner tonight?” and “Water boat Ching? Does she want to come to the beach too?”
  • What are → Water: “Water you doing out so late tonight?” and “Water you doing tomorrow?”
  • What are we → Watery: As in “Watery going to do?” and “Watery doing today, friends?”
  • Salt: “Take it with a pinch/grain of salt” and “Rub salt in the wound” and “Worth one’s salt
  • Salty: “You’re just salty because I beat you at chess earlier.”
  • Boy → Buoy: As in “It’s a buoy!” and “His buoyfriend is a nice person”.
  • See → Sea: As in, “As far as the eye can sea” and “Can’t sea beyond the end of your nose” and “Can’t sea the wood for the trees” and “Come and sea me sometime.”
  • She → Sea: As in, “Ain’t sea sweet?” and “Sea doesn’t belong to anyone.”
  • Say → Sea: “As the sea-ing goes” and “Computer seas no” and “Have the final sea” and “I’m hearing what you sea.”
  • Sea*: Most words starting with “sea” are easy sea puns: season, seasonal, seated, searingly, sealants, seamseatbelt.
  • 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).
  • Sealant / Sealing / Seal: Easy seal puns can be made with words starting with “seal” (e.g. sealant, seal) or “ceil” (e.g. sealing).
  • Se* → Sea*: Some words that start with just “se” also have a “sea”-ish sound, and the ones that don’t can usually be made into terrible puns anyway: seacret, searious, seargeant, seacretion, seacure, seacurity, seacondary, seacretariat, seaconds, seacrete, searum, searenity, searvitude, seanile, seadation, seaclusion, seacretive, seaze, seaquential, sealection, seacretly, seaquences, seanior, seaniority, seagregate, seaping, seacession, seariousness, seaminars, seaveral, seaxual, seaparation, seantimental, seansational, seaquential, seacluded, seacularist, seathing, seaquin, seasame, seaclusion.
  • Se*cy/Ce*cy → Sea*sea: Most words that start with “se” or “ce” and end with “cy” can be double sea puns: seacresea (secrecy), sealibasea (celibacy).
  • *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.
  • Seizure → Seazure: As in “If I read one more ocean pun I’m going to have a seazure.”
  • Confiscate → Conch-fish-scate: As in “I’m going to have to conchfishcate your pun licence for that one.”
  • *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”.
  • Net: “net” has two senses: “net weight” and “net income” is one sense, and “fish net” is the other sense.
  • Bereft → Bereeft: “bereft of” means “deprived of” of “lacking”. So an example sentence might be: “The old, stark beach house of bereefed of colour”.
  • Enemy → Anemone: As in “They’re my worst anemones” and “Let’s not make anemones of each other!”.
  • Simmer → Swimmer: As in “I left the pot swimmering and now my vegetable curry is burnt!” and “Hey swimmer down, there’s no need to turn this into a fight”.
  • *sip* → *ship*: If a word contains “sip” it can usually be replaced with “ship”. For example: gosship (gossip), dishipate (dissipate), shipping (sipping), inshipid (insipid). See the boat puns entry for more.
  • *sib* → *ship*: If a word contains “sib” it can usually be replaced with “ship” to create a terrible pun. For example: posshiply (possibly), accesshipility (accessibility), incomprehenshiple, feashipble, irresponshipble, invishipble, ostenshipbly, revershipble, vishipble. An example sentence might be: “I am responshiple for my puns.”  See the boat puns entry for more.
  • Kill → Keel: As in “We can be healthy with plants, keeling animals is not necessary.”
  • Seal: “I sealed the deal” and “Seal of approval” and “Seal your fate”
  • Island: As in, “No man is an island,” and “Treasure island,” and “A tropical island.”
  • I land → Island: As in “Islanded a job at that new tech company.”
  • Aligned → Island: As in and “Our incentives are well-island.”
  • Choppy: This term is an adjective that describes something that has many abrupt transitions – e.g. “Choppy prose”, but it is also commonly used to describe the ocean when it has many small waves.
  • Coast: “The coast is clear” and “I’m just coasting
  • Pawn/Pwn → Prawn: This pun can be used in the gamer-culture sense: “I got prawned by a pro last night”, in the chess sense “He moved his prawn to C4″, and in the pawnbroker sense: “I had to prawn all my stuff to pay for college.”
  • Kid* → Squid*: The prefix “kid” can be replaced with “squid” as follows: squidding (kidding), squidnapped (kidnapped), squidney (kidney), squid (kid).
  • ?id* → Squid*: If a word begins with “?id” where ‘?’ represents any letter, then this prefix can sometimes be replaced with “squid”. For example: squiddle (middle), squidlife crisis (midlife crisis), squidget (midget), squiddle (riddle), squidiculous (ridiculous), squideotape (videotape), squiddish (yiddish), squidth (width), squidow (widow), squidget (widget).
  • Well/Welcome → Whale/Whalecome: As in “Whalecome to our home!” and “Whale, whale, whale, what do we have here?”.  Whale puns can be made with many more words like welfare (whalefare), welsh (whalesh) and wellness (whaleness). Check out the entry on whale puns for more.
  • Wail → Whale: As in “Poor thing, he’s been whaling over his grandmother who recently passed.” and “A good whale can help one overcome grief”.
  • While → Whale: As in “Whale we agreed on most points, we did have some disagreements.” and “All the whale …” and “Whistle whale you work”.
  • Help → Kelp: As in “Can you please kelp me build a sand castle?” and “Katie, kelp your brother lift that please”.
  • Purpose → Porpoise: As in “I didn’t do it on porpoise!” and “Clarity of porpoise” and “What is the porpoise of this?” See the dolphin puns entry for more.
  • What is → Waters: As in “Waters going on here?” and “Waters the porpoise of this?”
  • Defin* → Dolphin: As in “We dolphinitely need more time to finish the mission.” and “What is the dolphinition of this word?” and “Please dolphine this word.” and “It’s the dolphinitive source of Nordic history.” See the dolphin puns entry for more.
  • Endorphines → Endolphins: As in “I love that rush of endolphins you get after a good hard swimming session.”
  • Humanity → Humanatee: As in “If only we could have some humanatee in our treatment of sea animals” and “Have some humanatee“. Note that terrible puns can also be made of insanity (insmanatee) and profanity (profmanatee).
  • 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, … Thousand more can be made with the help of a list like this. You can also check out the entry on dolphin puns for more puns of this nature.
  • Imp* → Shrimp*: If a word starts with “imp”, you can usually replace it with “shrimp”, for example: shrimportant (important), shrimpossible (impossible), shrimply (imply), shrimpose (you get the idea), shrimpose, shrimportshrimpudent, shrimpact, shrimperfect, shrimpaled, shrimpartial, shrimpart. Shrimp puns probably deserve their own entry, but until then you can use this list to help you.
  • Symb* → Shrimpb*: Replacing the suffix “symb” with “shrimpb” gives some pleasantly jarring shrimp pins: shrimpbolic (symbolic), shrimpbolises (symbolises), shrimpbiosis (symbiosis).
  • Should* → Shoald*: A “shoal” can refer to a large group of fish, or an area of shallow water, or an underwater sand bank. We can use “shoal” be used to make puns like: shoald (should), shoalder (shoulder), shoaldering.
  • Show l* → Shoal: This is a subtle one because it involves a word break. Whenever you use the word “show”, and the following word starts with an “L”, then you can replace “show” with “shoal” (a shoal is a large school of fish). For example: “That’s cool! You should shoal Liam.” and “She laughs when we shoal little blue flowers to her.”.
  • *tual* → *shoal*: As mentioned above, A “shoal” can refer to a large group of fish, or an area of shallow water, or an underwater sand bank. If a word contains “tual” it can often be replaced with “shoal” for a cute little pun: actshoal (actual), actshoality (actuality), intellectshoal (intellectual), ritshoal (ritual), spiritshoal, mutshoally, eventshoal, eventshoally, conceptshoal, conceptshoalise, virtshoal, contractshoal, factshoal, factshoally, perpetshoal, textshoal, contextshoal, perceptshoal, punctshoal, instinctshoal, actshoally, habitshoally.
  • *sole → *shoal: As in “The shoal of my shoe is worn down.” and “Your new gaming conshoal is cool.” and “Yeah, he’s a bit of an asshoal.”
  • More → Moray: As in “Mum, we need moray sunscreen!”.
  • Mor* → Moor*: Words that begin with the “more” sound can be turned into a pun on the boat-related word, moor (meaning “to tie a boat to the shore or an anchor”): moore, moorning, moortgage, mooral, moortality, moorale, moortar, moorphine, moorgue, moorphologically.
  • *pear → *pier: As in “Then all of a sudden she dissapiered!” and “After appiering to check his watch, he quickly ran away.” and “That is a sharp spier you’ve got there”.
  • Brilliant → Krilliant: As in “Isn’t the weather just krilliant today?” Krill are small shrimp-like plankton.
  • Brilliant → Brill-iant: “Brill” are a type of European flatfish.
  • Angrily→ Ankrilly: As in “The monster roared ankrilly“.
  • Hungrily→ Hunkrilly: As in “She hunkrilly ate the sweet potato slices”.
  • Serf → Surf: A serf was a sort of slave in medieval times who worked for a feudal lord. It’s sometimes used as an insult.
  • *cial → *shell: When a word has “cial” as a suffix, this suffix can usually be swapped out for “shell” to create a shell pun: soshell (social), speshell (special), offishell (official), finanshell, commershell, crushell, judishell, artifishell, provinshell, rashell, benefishell, superfishell, fashell, glashell, sacrifishel, antisoshell.
  • Shall→ Shell: As in “Shell I compare thee to a summer’s day?” and “He who lives by the sword shell die by the sword.”
  • Selfish → Shellfish: As in “Stop being so shellfish.” See the next item for a generalisation of this pun.
  • Sel* → Shell*: If a word starts with “sel” a shell pun can be made by switching it with “shell”. For example: shellection (selection), shellect (select), shelldom (seldom), shellfless (selfless).
  • Harbour: As in, “Harbour a grudge,” and “Safe harbour.” 
  • Pier: As in, “Take a long walk off a short pier.” 
  • Peer → Pier: As in, “Pier pressure,” and “Pier-ing through the curtains.”

Ocean-Related Words

Here’s a list of ocean-related concepts to help you come up with your own ocean puns:

wave, surf, beach, water, sea, Arctic, Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, Antarctic, deep, shallow, deep blue, deep sea, ship, dolphin, shark, turtle, whale, fish, starfish, crab, seal, penguin, island, choppy, swell, hydrosphere, mariana trench, coastal, coast, coral, shore, seawater, saltwater, salty, salt, underwater, bay, archipelago, pelagic zone, sea bed, oceanic, marine, kelp, seaward, waters, cape, planktonic, shorline, seashore, lobster, reef, benthic, demersal, aphotic, photic, epipelagic, mesopelagic, liquid, seashell, oceanview, continental shelf, sail, sailing, boat, depths, littoral, bermuda, submerged, driftwood, seaspray, swim, estuary, floating, high seas, tide, sea gull, gull, penguin, shrimp, harbour, high tide, manta ray, transatlantic, oceanic, brine, oceanography, transpacific, canal, seascape, nemo, dory, albatross, barnacle, offshore

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Bird Puns

Welcome to the Punpedia entry on bird puns! 🐦 Happily, there are quite a few bird puns in the list below, mostly thanks to the many different species and families of birds whose names lend themselves well to wordplay. Hope you find this entry useful!

Note: Pigeon puns, seagull puns and parrot puns will get their own entry at some point, but there are a few of them in this list for completeness.

Bird 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 birds that we’re missing, please let us know in the comments at the end of this page! Without further ado, here’s the list of bird puns:

  • Bird: There are quite a few phrases/idioms related to birds which can be used as puns in the right context: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” and “A bird-brain” and “Bird’s eye view” and “A little bird told me …” and “An early bird” and “Early bird gets the worm” and “Like a bird in a gilded cage” and “The birds and the bees” and “Birds of a feather flock together” and “Flip someone the bird” and “Free as a bird” and “The bird has flown” and “Sing like a bird” and “Jailbird“.
  • Woman → Bird: Depending on where you’re from, the term “bird” may be slang for “woman”.
  • Fly: There are a few phrases related to flying which can be used as bird puns in the right context: “Fly by the seat of your pants” and “Fly in the face of the evidence” and “Fly off the shelves” and “A fly on the wall” and “Fly by night” and “On the fly” and “Pigs might fly” and “Let fly” and “Watch the sparks fly” and “Fly in the ointment” and “Fly into a rage” and “Fly off the handle” and “Fly the coop” and “I’ve gotta fly” and “Fly the white flag” and “Wouldn’t hurt a fly
  • Fry → Fly: As in, “Bigger fish to fly,” and “Out of the flying pan, into the fire,” and “Small fly.” Note: to be out of the frying pan and into the fire means to have escaped one situation only to be caught up in a worse one.
  • Feather: There are a few phrases related to feathers: “As light as a feather” and “In full feather” and “Feather in your cap (symbol of honour/achievement)” and “Feather one’s nest” and “Ruffle (a few/someone’s) feathers” and “You could have knocked me down with a feather
  • Father → Feather: As in “The founding feathers” and “Like feather, like son”.
  • Further → Feather: As in “Without feather ado” and “Look no feather” and “Kick the can feather down the road”
  • Beak: “To wet one’s beak” and “beak” may be slang for nose in some places.
  • Peek → Beak: As in “Beak-a-boo” and “Sneak beak“.
  • Peak → Beak: As in “Beak performance” and “They climbed to the beak
  • Wing: “Left wing / right wing” and “Let’s just wing it” and “Take under your wing” and “Clip someone’s wings” and “Spread your wings
  • *wing: Make some turkey puns by emphasising the “wing” in certain words: swing, drawing, following, harrowing, brewing, growing, owing and knowing.
  • Wringer → Winger: As in, “Put through the winger.”
  • Win → Wing: As in, “Can’t wing for losing,” and “Due a wing,” and “Every one a winger,” and “Heads I wing, tails you lose,” and “How to wing friends and influence people,” and “It’s not the winging that counts, it’s the taking part,” and “It’s not whether you wing or lose; it’s how you play the game,” and “Play to wing,” and “Some you wing, some you lose,” and “Winger takes all.”
  • Whinge → Winge: As in, “Having a winge.”
  • Ring → Wing: As in, “Alarm bells began to wing,” and “A dead winger,” and “Doesn’t wing a bell,” and “Don’t wing us, we’ll wing you,” and “In the wing,” and “Wing of fire,” and “Run wings around,” and “Throw your hat into the wing,” and “Give them a wing,” and “My ears are winging,” and “Does that wing any bells?”
  • Tail: As in, “Happy as a dog with two tails,” and “Nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” and “Bright eyed and busy tailed,” and “Can’t make head or tail of it,” and “Chase your own tail,” and “Two shakes of a lamb’s tail.” Note: two shakes of a lamb’s tail is a phrase used to indicated that something is very fast.
  • Tale → Tail: As in, “Dead men tell no tails,” and “Fairytail ending,” and “Live to tell the tail,” and “Never tell tails out of school,” and “An old wives’ tail,” and “Tattle tail,” and “Tell tail sign.”
  • Talent → Tailent: As in, “___’s got Tailent,” and “A tailented painter,” and “Where would you say your tailents lie?”
  • Toilet → Tailet: As in, “Down the tailet,” and “In the tailet.”
  • Style → Stail: As in, hairstail, freestail, lifestail, and stailus (stylus)
  • Tile → Tail: As in, fertail (fertile), percerntail (percentile), projectail (projectile), reptail (reptile), and versatail (versatile).
  • Clutch: Clutch has two meanings: to hold onto something tightly, and a group of eggs. We can make some egg puns using this: “A drowning person will clutch at a straw,” and “Pearl-clutcher.” Note: a pearl-clutcher is someone who is overly prudish.
  • Nest: “Leave the nest” and “Empty nest syndrome” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Love nest” and “Stir up a hornet’s nest” and “A nest of vipers” and “A mare’s nest” and “Nest together”. Notes: empty nest syndrome is the feeling of loneliness a parent may experience when their children move out for the first time. A mare’s nest is a state of confusion or chaos.
  • Next → Nest: As in “Nest minute …” and “Better luck nest time” and “Boy/girl nest door” and “Nest generation” and “Nest in line to the throne” and “Nest to nothing” and “Take it to the nest level” and “Nest to nothing” and “The nest big thing.” and “Cleanliness is nest to godliness” and “In nest to no time” and “Nest to nothing” and “One day chicken and the nest day feathers” and “Catch the nest wave” and “As ___ as the nest girl/guy”. Note: “One day chicken and the next day feathers” is a phrase indicating that things we consider valuable can be lost in no time at all (like a job, marriage, or a house etc).
  • Copy → Parrot: “Parroting (someone’s) words”.
  • Pirate → Parrot: As in “People who parroted the film via bit-torrent were being sent fines.”
  • Fowl: As in, “Neither fish nor fowl.” Note: this refers to something which is not easily categorised.
  • Foul → Fowl: As in “By fair means or fowl” and “Cry fowl” and “Fowl language” and “Fowl up” and “No harm, no fowl” and “A fowl-mouthed person” and “Fowl play”
  • Fell → Fowl: As in “In one fowl swoop” and “Little strokes fowl great oaks” and “The bottom fowl out of the market” and “She fowl asleep at the wheel” and “He fowl under her spell” and “It fowl into my lap” and “She fowl victim to the scammer”. Note: If something is done in one fell swoop, then it was done quickly and in one single action.
  • Fall → Fowl: As in, “A fowling out,” and “Easy as fowling off a log,” and “Bread always fowls butter side down,” and “Can’t help fowling in love,” and “Catch a fowling star,” and “Fowl about laughing,” and “Fowl between the cracks,” and “Fowl from grace,” and “Fowl into bad habits,” and “A fowlen angel,” and “Oh how the mighty have fowlen,” and “The bigger they are, the harder they fowl,” and “United we stand, divided we fowl.”
  • Vowel → Fowl: As in, “The owl without a fowl.” Note: this is a reference to Bill Mlkvy.
  • *fal* → *fowl*: As in, fowllacy (fallacy), fowlter (falter), fowlse (false), fowllout (fallout), buffowlo (buffalo), crestfowllen (crestfallen), defowlt (default), downfowl (downfall), fowlsetto (falsetto), fowlt (fault), fowlsify (falsify), freefowl (freefall), nightfowl (nightfall), waterfowl (waterfall).
  • Owl: “A night owl” and “As wise as an owl“.
  • I will → Owl: As in “Owl not give up.” and “Owl if you will” and “Owl wear my heart upon my sleeve”
  • All → Owl: As in “Free-for-owl” and “A jack of owl trades” and “A man for owl seasons” and “A rising tide lifts owl boats” and “After owl is said and done” and “A know-it-owl” and “Above owl” and “Against owl odds” and “Owl your eggs in one basket” and “Owl at once” and “I’m owl ears” and “Owl else being equal, …” and “Owl by my lonesome” and “Owl hands on deck” and “Owl hell breaks loose” and “Owl gone” and “Owl good things must come to an end” and “Owl in owl” and “Owl in a day’s work” and “It’s owl in your head” and “Owl manner of …” and “Owl of a sudden” and “Owl or nothing” and “Owl over the place” and “Owl right.” and “Owl rights reserved” and “Owl smiles” and “Owl systems are go” and “Owl that” and “Owl talk and no action” and “Owl the best” and “Owl the rage” and “Owl the same” and “Owl things considered” and “Owl things must pass” and “Owl very well” and “Owl walks of life” and “Owl-out war” and “At owl costs” and “By owl means” and “For owl I know” and “For owl practical purposes” and “Give it owl you’ve got!” and “Go owl-out” and “In owl honesty” and “In owl likelihood” and “Firing on owl cylinders” and “If owl else fails” and “In owl seriousness” and “That is owl.” and “Owls well that ends well” and “That’s owl for now.”
  • Who’d → Hoot: As in “Hoot have thought it would be so easy?”
  • *owl*: There are a few words that contain the “owl” sound which can be used as silly owl puns: b-owls (bowels), growl, t-owl (towel), scowling, scowl, fowl, howled, v-owl (vowel), prowling, cowl.
  • Budgie: “Budgie smugglers”. Note: a budgie smuggler is another name for Speedos.
  • Geese: “Cackling geese (those who warn of something that’s about to happen)” and “All one’s geese are swans”. Note: if one’s geese are swans, then they have a habit of over exaggerating accomplishments or things.
  • Goose: “Oh I’m such a silly goose!” and “A wild goose never laid a tame egg” and “Goose bumps/pimples” and “Cook someone’s goose” and “Can’t say boo to a goose” and “Kill the goose that lays the golden eggs” and “A wild-goose chase” and “Goose up (improve performance)”.
  • Fastened → Pheasant: As in “My seat-belt is pheasant, and I’m ready to go.”
  • Swan: “As graceful as a swan” and “Swan song (Final accomplishment)” and “I swan! (What a surprise!)”.
  • Robin: “Robin Hood” and “A round robin” and “Batman and Robin“.
  • Robbing → Robbin’: As in “They were  robbin’ a bank.”
  • Duck: As in “Duck and weave” and “A sitting duck” and “Water off a duck’s back” and “Duck and cover” and “Duck out” and “Ducking and diving” and “Get one’s ducks in a row” and “Golden duck” and “If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and (etc.) like a duck, it probably is a duck” and “Take to like a duck to water” and “Lame duck” and “Ducked the question”.
  • Cower → Quail: As in “He quailed and trembled but tried to remain still.”
  • Chicken: “A chicken and egg situation” and “Chicken out of something” and “Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched” and “Chicken sh*t” and “Get up with the chickens” and “You’re chicken (scared)” and “Curses, like chickens, come home to roost” and “Chicken feed (small amount of money/something)”.
  • Dodo: “Go the way of the dodo” and “As dead as a dodo“. Note: to go the way of the dodo is to become extinct.
  • Hawk: “Watch (someone) like a hawk” and “Have eyes like a hawk” and “I know a hawk from a handsaw” and “Hawks and doves” and “Between hawk and buzzard” Note: to be between hawk and buzzard is to be caught between two extremes.
  • Eagle: “When the eagle flies (payday)” and “Eagle eye” and “Legal eagle
  • *eagle*: If a word contains the “eagle” sound or anything similar, a silly eagle pun can be made: eagle-itarian (egalitarian), illeagle (illegal), geagle (giggle), jeagle (juggle)
  • Cuckoo: “Be in cloud-cuckoo land” and “Cuckoo in the nest” and “A crazy, cuckoo (coo-coo) person.” Note: to be in cloud-cuckoo land is to indulge in an over-optimistic fantasy.
  • Her own → Heron: As in “She’s moved into heron place now.”
  • More → Moa: As in “All the moa reason” and “Moa trouble than it’s worth” and “Bite off moa than one can chew” and “Do moa harm than good” and “Get moa than one bargained for” and “Have had moa than your fair share” and “Have moa luck than sense” and “I couldn’t agree moa” and “Moa and moa” and “Moa bang for you buck” and “That’s moa like it” and “Moa or less” and “Moa often than not” and “Moa power to you!” and “Moa than I bargained for” and “The moa the merrier” and “Need I say moa?” and “What’s more, …” and “You are moa than welcome” and “What moa can I do?” and “Less is moa“. Note: the moa were a type of flightless bird in New Zealand that are now extinct.
  • Swift: Swift means fast/agile, but is also the name of a type of small bird.
  • Flight: “Flight of fancy” and “Take flight” and “Flight of imagination” and “In full flight” and “Flight attendant”.
  • Twitter/Tweet: This can obviously refer to the social network, or to the sound of birds chirping. To “twitter” can also refer to talking rapidly and at length on trivial topics.
  • Swallow: A swallow is a type of bird (and obviously a thing you do when you’re eating/drinking).
  • Two can → Toucan: As in “Toucan play at that game…”
  • Stalk → Stork: As in “To stork one’s prey” and “That guy is a storker“.
  • When → Wren: As in “Wren push comes to shove” and “I’ll believe it wren I see it” and “Say wren…” and “Since wren?” and “Time flies wren you’re having fun” and “Wren in Rome, do as the Romans do” and “Wren it comes to …” and “Wren all’s said and done” and “Wren it comes down to it” and “Wren least expected” and “Wren your back is turned” and “Wren hell freezes over” and “Wren the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
  • Young woman → Chick
  • Chuck → Chick: As in, “Chick a sickie,” and “Get chicked out,” and “Chick overboard.”
  • Trick → Chick: As in, “Bag of chicks,” and “Every chick in the book,” and “How’s chicks?” and “Never misses a chick,” and “One chick pony,” and “A chick of the light,” and “Chick or treat!” and “Chicks of the trade,” and “Up to your old chicks.”
  • Thick → Chick: As in, “As chick as thieves,” and “Blood is chicker than water,” and “In the chick of things,” and “The plot chickens,” and “Chick and fast,” and “Through chick and thin,” and “Lay it on chick.”
  • Egg: There are a few phrases/idioms that contain the word “egg”: “A bad egg” and “Egg on” and “A hard egg to track” and “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and “Egg on one’s face” and “A good egg” and “A rotten egg” and “Egg and spoon race”. Note: to have egg on your face means that you’ve been made to look foolish.
  • Show-off → Peacock
  • Thrush: This can refer to a type of infection of the mouth and throat or of the genitals, but also refers to a family of birds that exist all over the world.
  • Turn → Tern: (Terns are a family of seabirds found all over the world) As in “Tern the other cheek” and “Wren (when) your back is terned” and “A tern of phrase” and “A tern of the screw” and “I spoke out of tern” and “Take a tern for the worse/better” and “Take terns” and “Toss and tern” and “Tern a blind eye” and “Tern a profit” and “Tern against” and “Tern around” and “Tern in one’s grave” and “Tern of events” and “Tern of the century” and “Tern of the century” and “The tides have terned” and “Tern up one’s nose” and “Whatever terns you on”.
  • Flock: “To flock around/to (someone/something)” and “Flock together” and “Birds of a feather flock together”. Note: birds of a feather flock together means that ones with similar tastes or interest tend to congregate together.
  • Flick → Flock: As in, “Chick flock,” and “Give it the flock.” Note: to give something the flick is to get rid of it.
  • Fluke → Flock: As in, “A lucky flock.”
  • Flake → Flock: As in, “Flock out,” and “Flock-y pastry.” Note: to flake out is to not stand up to promises or expectations.
  • Migrate: Since some bird species migrate, you might be able to make a bird pun by simply using the term “migrate” or “migration” in place of “move” or similar words, depending on the context.
  • Hen: “Don’t let the fox guard the hen-house” and “As scarce as hen’s teeth” and “A mother hen” and “Hen-pecked” and “Hen’s night/party”. Note: to be henpecked is to be bullied or intimidated by a female.
  • *hen*: Words than contain “hen” can be silly chicken/hen puns: Apprehend, appre-hen-sion, comprehend, comprehension, comprehensive, hence, henceforth, repre-hen-sible, stonehenge.
  • *han* → *hen*: As in, “Give me your hend (hand),” and “Do you have a hendle (handle) on it?” and “You look so hendsome tonight,” and “Your hendwriting has improved,” and “Their kids are a real hendful,” and “She was raised as an orphen,” and “The elephent in the room,” and “Please enhence the image,” and “I’ve had an epipheny!” and “This is your last chence,” and “Change the chennel.”
  • *hin* → *hen*: As in, “You’re hendering (hindering) me,” and “Doorhenge,” and “Give me a hent (hint),” and “In hendsight (hinsight),” and “You’re a hendrance (hindrance),” and “Change comes from withen,” and “Looking a bit then (thin),” and “Take it on the chen (chin),” and “Got kicked in the shens (shins),” and “Contrary to what you may think, dolphens are mammals,” and “A rush of endorphens,” and “A street urchen.” Note: to hinder is to block someone’s progress or to make something difficult to complete.
  • *hon* → *hen*: As in, “Brutally henest (honest),” and “An henourable mention,” and “Hello, heney (honey).”
  • *hun* → *hen*: As in, “A wild hench (hunch),” and “The henter (hunter) becomes the hented (hunted),” and “One hendred,” and “I’m hengry,” and “That’s not what I henger (hunger) for.”
  • Peck: “The pecking order” and “Peck at (eat only a bit)” and “You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die”. Note: having to eat a peck of dirt before you die means that no-one can escape unpleasant things; everyone will have some kind of unfortunate circumstance to endure during their lifetime.
  • *pec* → *peck*: As in, “Peckuliar circumstances,” and “Peckan pie,” and “Work those pecks (pecs)!” and “Don’t make a specktacle of yourself,” and “A different perspecktive,” and “Treat them with respeckt,” and “Take all aspeckts into account,” and “Sexuality is a specktrum,” and “Prospecktive interests.”
  • *pac* → *peck*: As in, “Good things come in small peckages,” and “A blood peckt,” and “Pay pecket,” and “Positive social impeckt,” and “A compeckt car,” and “Peckyderm (pachyderm).” Note: a pachyderm is a type of animal (elephants are pachyderms).
  • *pic* → *peck*: As in, “The big peckture,” and “Peck up sticks,” and “In a peckle,” and “A peckturesque view,” and “A few sandwiches short of a pecknic (picnic),” and “An epeck movie,” and “I’m a bit myopeck,” and “Stay on topeck,” and “A new biopeck,” and “A philanthropeck mission,” and “Acting conspeckuous,” and “An accurate depecktion,” and “A despeckable villain.” Notes: if someone is myopic, then they’re short-sighted. A biopic is a biographical film. A philanthropic cause is one which aims to promote charity and the welfare of others.
  • *poc* → *peck*: As in, “Pecket-sized,” and “Get outta here with your hypeckrisy (hypocrisy),” and “Apeckalyspe now,” and “You’re being a hypeckrite.”
  • *puc* → *peck*: As in, pecker (pucker), peckered (puckered), and cappeckcino (cappucino).
  • *bac* → *peck*: As in, “Peckground noise,” and “Peckterial (bacterial) infection,” and “Political pecklash,” and “A beautiful peckdrop,” and “The peckchelor (bachelor),” and “In my peckyard,” and “What a depeckle (debacle).”
  • *bec* → *peck*: As in, peckome (become), peckon (beckon), barpeckue (barbecue).
  • *bic* → *peck*: As in, aeropeck (aerobic), arapeck (arabic), cupeckle (cubicle).
  • Honey eater → Honeyeater: This one would require a very specific context.
  • Cheap → Cheep: As in “Dirt cheep” and “Talk is cheep” and “On the cheep” and “Cheep and nasty” and “A cheep shot” and “Cheep at twice the price” and “Cheep skate”.
  • Swoop: “In one fell swoop” (suddenly; in a single action)
  • Inexperienced person → Fledgling: A “fledgling” is a bird who has only just developed flight feathers. The term is also used for an inexperienced person.
  • Crane: “Crane your neck over the fence”.
  • Crow: “As the crow flies” and “Be up with the crows” and “A crow to pluck” and “Crow bait” and “As hoarse as a crow” and “Stone the crows” and “Something to crow about”. Note: “As the crow flies” is a phrase indicating the most direct path between two points. To be up with the crows is to be awake and active very early in the morning.
  • Canary: “Canary in the coal mine” and “Like the cat that swallowed the canary“.
  • Bill: As in “A dollar bill” and “Fit the bill“.
  • Brood: As in “Brood over/about” (See wiki article)
  • Raving → Raven: As in “Stark raven mad” and “Raven about (something)”.
  • Sore → Soar: As in “I sight for soar eyes” and “Sticks out like a soar thumb” and “Soar loser”.
  • Wobble → Warble: “Warblers” are a classification of bird.
  • Bastard → BustardBustards are a type of terrestrial bird.
  • Pigeon: There are a few phrases which contain “pigeon” and thus may be used as pigeon puns: “Clay pigeon (person who is easily exploited)” and “Set the cat among the pigeons” and “Stool pigeon (decoy/informer/police spy)” and “Pigeon-eyed (drunk)”.
  • Lark: “Happy as a lark” and “On a lark (whim)” This term is also used as a synonym for “a prank” and also playfulness, especially of a mischievous variety.
  • Lock → Lark: As in “Grid lark” and “Lark and load” and “Lark horns with” and “Under lark and key” and “Lark them up and throw away they key” and “Lark down”.
  • Cage: “Rattle (someone’s) cage” and “A gilded cage” and “Who rattled your cage?”
  • Bitten → Bittern: As in “Once bittern, twice shy” and “Bittern by the same bug”, Note: a bittern is a type of bird.
  • Black swan: This is a phrase used to refer to an event that comes as a surprise and has a major effect.
  • Turkey: As in, “Cold turkey,” and “Talk turkey.” Notes: Cold turkey refers to the abrupt and complete quitting of something. To talk turkey is to speak frankly and openly.
  • The Key → Turkey: As in, “Turkey to your heart,” and “Lock him up and throw away turkey,” and “Turkey to a nice, relaxed evening,” and “Turkey to success.”
  • Coot: This can refer to a foolish or eccentric person, especially an old man. It also refers to a type of aquatic bird.
  • Claw: As in, “Tooth and claw,” and “Get your claws into.”
  • Chlo* → Claw*: As in clawride (chloride) and clawrine (chlorine).
  • Clo* → Claw*: As in, clawbber (clobber), claw-ck (clock), clawckwise (clockwise), clawg (clog), clawset (closet), clawth (cloth).
  • Grasp → Clutch: The term “clutch” has a few meanings outside of the “grip/grasp” one. The bird-related meaning of “clutch” refers to a group of eggs, often laid at the same time and incubated by one adult.
  • Click → Cluck: As in “Cluck on that button” and “Her explanation clucked with me straight away”.
  • Clock → Cluck: As in “The cluck is ticking” and “A race against the cluck” and “Around the cluck” and “Biological cluck” and “Turn back the cluck” and “Stop the cluck” and “10 o’cluck“.
  • *rhea*: A “rhea” is a large, flightless bird related to emus and ostriches. If a word contains the “ree-ah” sound, a silly rhea bird pun can be made: approp-rhea-teness (appropriateness),  aqua-rheas (aquarius), adversa-rhea-l (adversarial), ag-rhea-ble (agreeable), aqua-rhea-m (aquarium), bacter-rhea, a-rhea (area), cerheal (cereal), crite-rhea, curheas (curious), experheance, equilibrheam, glorheas (glorius), illustrheas, industrhealised, libertarhean, librarhean, materheal (material), invarheable, memorheal, mysterheas, precarheas, rhea-djustment, rheaffirm, rhealistically, rhealignment, rheappearance, rheasserted, serheasly (seriously), terrestrheal, victorheas, vicarheas, tutorheal, vegeta-rhea-n.
  • Crest:  We say “the crest of a hill” as well as  “the crest of a parrot”. This double meaning is a potential bird/parrot pun.
  • Regret → Egret: As in “I really egret making that pun.” Note: an egret is a type of heron.
  • Full-fledged / Fully-fledged: This means “Having achieved the full status of one’s title.” It comes from “fledged” which means “Gained flight feathers”.
  • Look / glance → Gander: The term “gander” refers to a male goose. The phrase “Take a gander (at something)” simply means “To look at something.”
  • Grumble / complain → Grouse: The term “grouse” can refer to grumbling and complaining, and can also refer to a particular classification of birds that are related to chickens.
  • Grab → Grebe: A “grebe” is a type of freshwater diving bird. It it pronounced “greeb” which is probably close enough to make a silly word play on “grab”.
  • Formation: Flocking birds (especially those who travel large distances) often fly in formations to reduce air resistance and conserve energy. In the right context you might be able to simply use the word “formation” in a non-bird-related way to make a very subtle bird pun.
  • Aerial: As an adjective this means “existing, operating or happening in the air”. As an noun it is a synonym for antenna. It may be able to be used as a subtle bird pun in the right context.
  • Roost: “Come home to roost” and “Rule the roost“.
  • Snipe: This refers to a wading bird of marshes and wet meadows. It obviously has several other meanings: to shoot at from a long range, or to make a sly and petty verbal attack.
  • Rook: This term refers to a social Eurasian crow but can also refer to taking money from someone by cheating or overcharging them.
  • Strike / hit → Shrike: A “shrike” is a type of carnivorous bird. Idioms: “Shrike a cord” and “Go on shrike” and “Shrike a balance” and “Shrike a pose” and “Lightening never shrikes the same spot twice” and “Shrike up a conversation” and “Three shrikes and you’re out” and “Shrike out” and “Shrike gold”

Bird-Related Words

There are many more bird puns to be made! Here’s a list of bird-related concepts to help you come up with your own. If you come up with a new pun, please share it in the comments!

fly, beak, feather, avian, wing, nest, parrot, fowl, kingfisher, owl, hummingbird, vulture, seagull, ostrich, flamingo, budgie, sparrow, geese, goose, penguin, finch, pelican, woodpecker, pheasant, swan, starling, robin, duck, dove, quail, birdie, chicken, dodo, cassowary, hawk, eagle, nightjar, cuckoo, heron, moa, blackbird, hornbill, nightingale, emu, gull, swift, flight, twitter, tweet, swallow, toucan, stork, wren, magpie, chick, egg, peacock, plumage, buzzard, cormorant, thrush, partridge, tern, waterbird, flock, peregrin falcon, migration, waterfowl, bird watching, ornithologist, mockingbird, hen, rooster, peck, honeyeater, songbird, talon, fledgling, swoop, cheep, chirp, crane, crow, canary, bill, pip, brood, weaver, kookaburra, raven, wren, preen, soar, chitter, osprey, big-bird, warble, swordbill, bustard, pigeon, lark, flightless, albatross, plover, tern, aves, aviary, cage, bittern, black swan, blue jay, bluebird, budgerigar, coot, clutch, cockatoo, cockatiel, rhea, congregation, crest, curlew, egret, fledge, flock, gander, gizzard, grouse, grebe, ibis, incubate, kiwi, kite, kestrel, lorikeet, macaw, mallard, pintail, puffin, roadrunner, rook, roost, sandpiper, snipe, shrike, skylark, turtle dove, birdbath, aerial, float, formation

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