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

Did this Punpedia entry help you?

Did you find the ocean-related pun that you were looking for? If so, great! Otherwise, please let us know what you were looking for in the comments, below! Are you looking for word play for text messages, facebook, twitter, or some other social media platform? Would you like to see some funny ocean pun images? Or perhaps you just want more ocean puns for your photo captions? Whatever the case, please let us know, and help us improve this Punpedia entry. If you’re got any ocean puns (image or text) that aren’t included in this article, please submit them in the comments and one of our curators will add it as soon as possible. Thanks for visiting Punpedia 🙂

Fish Puns

Fish puns! 🐟 One of the most famous categories of puns on the internet, and that’s what this Punpedia entry is all about. Fish puns overlap a little with the entries on shark puns, beach puns, boat puns and water puns, so feel free to check out those articles for some related wordplay. Fish puns often centre around a few key topics: fins, jaws, names of species, and a few other fish-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. If you’re looking for visual puns, there’s a collection of visual fish puns towards the end of this entry.

Fish Puns List

Each item in this list of fish 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 asterisks sign (*) represents one or more letters. Without further ado, here is a big list of fish puns:

  • Could → Cod: As in “Cod we be friends?” and “Codn’t you hear me?”
  • *cod*: If a word contains the “cod” sound, or anything vaguely similar we can made a silly fish pun from it: avoCODo, acodemy, abracodabra, acodemia, acodemically, macodamia.
  • Mull it → Mullet: As in “I’ll mullet over and get back to you.”
  • Notwithstanding → Notfishstanding : As in “Nothfishtanding their enormity, they are quite streamlined creatures.”
  • Pacifist → Pacifisht: As in “I am a pacifisht, I don’t believe in war.”
  • Universe → Tunaverse: As in “The tunaverse is truly an incredible place.”
  • Hearing → Herring: As in “I’ve been herring rumours around town…”
  • Aren’t you vehement → Anchovy-hement: As in “Anchovy-hement about your philosophical position?”
  • Scale: Fish have scales, and the term scales has many other uses which we can use for fish puns: “These puns are off the scales!” and “We need to scale back.” and “The startup went well initially, but their model didn’t scale.”
  • Thought → Trout: As in “I trout she loved me.” and “I was deep in trout.”
  • Tense → Tench: As in “The atmosphere here is really tench.” A “tench” is a freshwater with of the minnow family.
  • My nose → minnows: For example: “Minnows is sunburned!” and “Hey, give me back minnows!”.
  • Re* →Reel*: Most words starting with “re” can be made into fishing puns: reelationship, reelease, reelate, reelief, reeligion, reelative, reelevant, reelax, reeluctant, reeliablereeliability, reelieved, reeliance, reelay, reelapse, reelinquish, reeligation, reelive, reelentlessly.
  • Really → Reely: As in “This is a reely good boat pun” and “I’m having a reely good day on my boat!”.
  • Fan → Fin: As in “I’m your biggest fin!”
  • Fan* → Fin*: Words beginning with “fan” can be made into terrible fish puns: fintastic, fintabulous, fintasy, fintasise, finatic, finatical, fincy (fancy).
  • Fun → Fin: As in “We’re going to have so much fin!”
  • Fun* → Fin*: Words beginning with “fin” can be made into terrible fish puns: findamentally, findamentals,  finction (function), functionality, findraising, finniest (funniest),
  • Caffeine → Cafin: I need my morning cafin.
  • 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”.
  • Net: “net” has two senses: “net weight” and “net income” is one sense, and “fish net” is the other sense.
  • Surgeon → Sturgeon: A “sturgeon” is a very large primitive fish with bony plates on the body. Have a look at the Wikipedia article.
  • Place → Plaice: “plaice” is a common North Atlantic flatfish.
  • Door salesperson → Dorsals-person: As in “Door-to-dorsals people are really annoying.” and “Does anyone actually buy things from dorsalsmen?”
  • Bollocks → Pollocks: A pollock is a greenish-brown fish of the cod family.
  • 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 heard Finland has great fish puns.”
  • Snappy → Snapper: As in “That was a snapper comeback!” and “Well, there’s no need to get snapper with me.” A snapper is a type of fish.
  • Girl → Gill: As in “Our little gill grew up so fast!”
  • Tad → Shad: A shad is a common herring-like fish which lives in the sea and breeds in rivers.
  • Jelly: Can be used as a pun on jellyfish and the slang term for jealous (“Oh you’re just jelly.”) and as a pun on the food item.
  • Waded: Along with wading through water (as fishers do), this can mean to “read laboriously through a long piece of writing”, so a water pun could be by using it with this definition: “Wading through your last comment was difficult.” It could also just be used in place of “walk”.
  • *gil* → *gill*: If a word contains the “gill” sound, replacing it the letters “gill” is an easy homographic fish pun: gillt (guilt), gillty (guilty), 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).
  • 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 (sherif), threefold.
  • 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, seariouslyseargeant, 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: seamingly, seads, seaker, seathe, seap, seak, sean, sea (see). See ocean puns entry for more.
  • 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).
  • Chum: This is a name for chopped fish and fish fluids thrown overboard as bait. 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.”
  • Shock → Shark: As in “I was still shivering from shark.”
  • 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?”
  • 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?”
  • *pear → *pier: As in “Then all of a sudden she disapiered!” and “After appiering to check his watch, he quickly ran away.” and “That is a sharp spier you’ve got there”. People often catch fish from a pier.
  • Anymore → Nemo: As in “You’re not a kid nemo, Sarah!”
  • Nemesis → Nemo-sis: As in “She has always been my arch nemosis.”
  • Bas* → Bass*: The prefix “bas” can be sometimes be replaced with “bass”, the name of a freshwater fish to make fish puns: bass-ically (basically), bassis (basis), bassket, basstard.
  • Ass* → Bass*: The prefix “ass” can be replaced with “bass”, the name of a freshwater fish to make fish puns: bassignment (assignment), bassets (assets), bassault, bassemble, bassumption, basshole, bassertion, bassemble, bassociate, bassume, bassessment, bassure, bassist, bassailant, bass.
  • Confiscate → Conch-fish-scate: As in “I’m going to have to conchfishcate your pun licence for that one.”
  • Have you → Caviar: The word “caviar” sounds a bit like like “have ya”.
  • Turbo → Turbot: As in “Is this boat turbot-charged?” A turbot is a European flatfish.
  • Roe: The term “roe” is fish or shellfish eggs, and it can be inserted into many other words: roetine (routine), roemans (romans), roetation (rotation), roed (rowed or road), roese (rose), roell(roll), roeperoemanticroebust, roebot, roegue, roest.
  • *row: If a word ends in “row” it’s an easy rowing pun: grow, throw, narrow, tomorrow, borrow, arrow, eyebrow, sorrow, overthrow, barrow, burrow, crow, harrow, marrow, sparrow, furrow, wheelbarrow, scarecrow, farrow, outgrow. Variations of these like growing, borrowing, sorrowful, etc. also work.
  • Row*: Words that start with a “row” sound can be changed to make rowing puns too: rowtine (routine), rowmans (romans), rowtation (rotation), rowse (rose or rouse), rowll, rowpe, rowmantic, rowbust, rowbot, rowgue (rogue), rowst (roast).
  • 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*: 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.”
  • Wish → Fish: As in “I just fish we had more time!” and “If you rub the lamp you get three fishes“.
  • Fission → Fishin’: As in “Nuclear fishin’ is an exciting new technology.”
  • God → Cod: As in “There have been hundreds of cods invented throughout history” and “Cod is very cruel in the Old Testament” and “We’re lucky that cod is made up!”.
  • 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.”
  • Sardonic: Sardonic means “grimly mocking or cynical”, and it sounds a bit like “sardine” (the small fish), so you might us this like: “It’s okay if you don’t like seaside puns but there’s no reason to be sardonic“. For extra cheesiness you can also use “sardinonic“, which is even closer to the word “sardine”, but is not a real word.
  • Certainly → Sardinely: As in “This is sardinely an excellent fish pun.”
  • Feeling → Eeling: As in “I’ve got a funny eeling about this…” and “I’m eeling bad about the state of this conversation”.
  • Wrath → Wrasse: As in “You provoked me, and now you shall experience my full wrasse!”
  • Wrestle → Wrassetle: As in “A friendly wrassetle is always good fun.”
  • Line: The word “line” has a tonne of different definitions and is involved in many idioms and cliches. It’s also short for “fishing line” amongst people who catch fish.
  • Opportunity → Opportunaty: As in “We’ve got one opportunaty, let’s make it count” and “Luck is  often combination of preparation and opportunaty“.
  • Opportunity → Op-perch-tuna-ty: As in “I’m glad I got an op-perch-tuna-ty to say this pun.” Perch is a type of freshwater fish.
  • *tun* → *tuna*: Generalising the above example, we can make a tuna pun on many words that contain “tun”: opportunaist, attunament, fortuna-teller, fortunately, tunable.
  • Perch: As in “I was perched on the branch, ready to jump down.” and “I perched the old vase on the edge of the plank.” A perch is a type of freshwater fish.
  • Dab: As in “Dab the ointment gently on the wound.” and “No, too much! Just a dab.” A dab is a small flatfish found mostly in the North Atlantic.
  • Thank → Tank: As in “Tanks so much for coming!” (A play on aquariums)
  • Okay → Hoki: As in “Try a little harder next time, Hoki?” The term “Hoki” refers to a type of hake fish.
  • Girl* → Gill*: As in “There was a strange gill sitting on the beach today.” and “Where is your gillfriend, today?”
  • Ill* → Gill*: If a word starts with “ill”, it can be replaced with “gill” to create a pun. Here’s a list of words to get you started: gillustrate (illustrate), gillegal (illegal), gillness (illness), gillusion (you get the idea), gillogical, gilliterate, gilluminate, gilluminati, gillusive.
  • Hil* → Gill*: If a word starts with “hil”, it can be replaced with “gill” to create a pun. Here’s a list of words to get you started: gill (hill), gillarious (hilarious), gillarity (hilarity), gilltop (hilltop).
  • Debate → Debait: As in “I don’t want to debait you.” and “We’re just having a friendly debait“.
  • Bet → Bait: As in “I bait you I’ll beat you in a fish pun battle.”
  • But → Bait: As in “I’d come along, bait I’ve got an appointment.”
  • Meant to → Manta: As in “I manta buy her a gift, but I forgot.” and “Is it manta make that sound?”. If you’re feeling brave you might also like to try “manta ray” as a replacement for “meant to say”.
  • Summon → Salmon: As in “He salmoned a spirit from the underworld.” and “Please salmon the duke, I have an urgent message!”.
  • Someone → Salmon: As in “Will salmon please help me?” and “Salmon’s at the door”.
  • Crea* → Cray*: Many words that begin with “crea” can be used to make shoddy crayfish puns. For example: crayture (creature), craytive (creative), crayte (create).
  • Crayon: The word “crayon” includes “cray” – the short version of “crayfish”, and so can be used as a pun.
  • Had → Haddock: A beautiful and terrible pun using the name of a North Atlantic bottom-dwelling fish. An example sentence might be: “I’ve haddock enough.”
  • Had it → Haddock: As in “I’ve just about haddock with your puns!”
  • Mack → Mackerel: The word “mack” is slang for “to flirt”. To “mack on” someone is to “hit on” them. One could make a very bad pun with the word “mackerel” (a type of fish).
  • Soul → Sole: A “sole” is a type of marine flatfish: “That girl’s got sole!”
  • Hook: People who catch fish use barbed steel hooks. An example sentence might be: “It’s likely that you’re hooked on fish puns.”
  • Ra* → Ray*: Many words that start with “ra” can be made into puns with “ray” (short for “sting ray”). For example: rayte (rate), raynge (range), rayse (raise), rayce (race), raydio, raylway, rayn, rayl, raytio, raydiation, raynbow, raycism, raynger. Many more can be made using this list.
  • *ration → *raytion: If a word ends in “ration” you can almost always make a stingray pun with it. For example: operaytion, administraytion, consideraytion, generaytion, concentraytion, corporaytion, preparaytion, demonstraytion, integraytion, registraytion, separaytion. You’ll find many more examples in this list.
  • *rag* → *rayg*: If a word contains “rag” it can sometimes be punned on. For example: “This discussion is absolutely outraygeous!”. Other examples are: discourayge, coverayge and beverayge.
  • Cuddle → Cuttle: As in “Would you like a cuttle?” and “Cuttling you is nice :)”.
  • It’s cool → School: The collective noun for a group of fish is “school”, as in “a school of fish”. So, replacing “it’s cool” with “school” gives us puns like “School, don’t worry about it” and “Don’t worry, school, she’ll be back soon.”
  • Coy → Koi: To be “coy” means to be “shy” or to pretend to be shy so as to be seen as cute or attractive. “Koi” are variety of carp fish commonly bred in Japan.
  • Hate → Hake: As in “I absolutely hake it when it rains at the beach”. Hake are a species of fish.
  • Rue → Roe: The term “roe” refers to a mass of fish eggs inside the ovaries of a fish or shellfish. “Rue” means to bitterly regret.
  • Batter: People who eat fish often cover it in a floury semi-liquid which gives it a crisp coating. Batter can also mean “to strike repeatedly with hard blows”. For example: “No more fish puns or I’ll batter you!”
  • Brilliant → Brill-iant: “Brill” are a common European flatfish. We can use it to make a fish pun of all the different variations of brilliant: brill-iant, brill-iance, brill-iantly.
  • Hearing → Herring: As in “He is hard of herring.” and “The judge said he will receive a second herring on Tuesday”.
  • Hell of it → Halibut: As in “Why? Just for the halibut!”. Halibut is a marine flatfish.
  • Harp* → Carp*: If a word starts with “harp” a fish pun can be made by switching it with “carp”. For example: “Oh will you stop carping on (harping on) about your fishing trip!” and “I think we’ll need to use a carpoon (harpoon)”.
  • Obs* → Lobs*: If a word begins with “obs” a terrible lobster pun can sometimes be made by switching it with “lobs”, as in observation (lobservation, or even lobstervation), obstruction (lobstruction or even lobsterusction), obscurity (lobscurity), obsolescence (lobseolescence), obsessively (lobsessively).
  • Fumble/Struggle → Flounder: The word “flounder” can refer to a small, common flatfish found in coastal waters and also, as a verb, to struggling, staggering or clumsily trying to do something. Use “flounder” to replace words like fumble and struggle: “He made a good sea pun at the start, but then floundered for the rest of his speech.”
  • Bereft → Bereeft: “bereft of” means “deprived of” or “lacking”. So an example sentence might be: “The old, stark beach house of bereefed of colour”.
  • 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”.
  • El* → Eel*: A word that starts with “el” can often be an eel pun: eelection (election), eelse (else), eelement (element), eelectricity, eeliminate, eelite, eelephant, eelectron, eeleven, eelegant, eeligible, eelderly, eelicit, eelated, eelusive, eeligibility, eelapse, eelevator, eelbow, eelastic, eeloquent, eelipse.
  • Go be → Goby: As in “Goby alone for a while – it will help”. A “goby” us a small fish which has a sucker on its underside.
  • Late → Lake: As in “It’s a bit lake to start now.”
  • School: Fish swim in “schools“, and there are a few usual definitions of school, plus some slang ones like in “You just got schooled!”
  • Tune a → Tuna: As in “How does one tuna piano?” and “I was trying to tuna guy at the club.”
  • Darn → Tarn: As in “Tarn it!” A tarn is a small mountain lake.
  • Try out → Trout: As in “I can’t wait to trout my new outfit!”
  • Creak → Creek: As in “These floorboards are creeky.”
  • Onion → Grunion: As in “Mushroom burger with extra grunion please!” A “grunion” is a small, slender Californian fish known for their unusual spawning behaviour in which they move out of the water onto the beach to bury their eggs.
  • Barfish: A barfish is another name for the yellow bass: “I’m feeling a little barf-ish reading so many terrible puns.”
  • Cuddle it → Codlet: A “codlet” is one of a family of family of species of cod-like fish: “That’s so cute! I’d codlet all day!”
  • Spike → Pike: As in “Someone piked the punch!”
  • Dang → Tang: As in “Tang nabbit!” A “tang” is a surgeonfish that occurs around reefs and rocky areas where it eats algae.
  • Catch: As in “Did you catch that?”
  • Official → Offishial: “This is an offishal fish pun.”
  • Selfish → Shellfish: “Stop being so shellfish!” and “Shellfishness is not going to help.”
  • Sell fish → Shellfish: “We need to shellfish all day if we’re going to make a profit.”
  • Bar Monday → Barramundi: As in “I like all the days barramundi.”
  • More → Moray: As in “Mum, we need moray sunscreen!”.
  • Trawl/Troll: As in “This internet trawl keeps posting annoying comments.”
  • Spineless → Boneless: As in “You boneless coward.”
  • Fistful → Fishtful: “A fishtful of daisies.”
  • Flinch →Flitch: As in “I didn’t even flitch!” A “flitch” is a name for a fish steak, usually cut from a halibut.
  • Head-ache →Haddock: As in “I’ve got a bit of a haddock, can we do this later?” A haddock is a common bottom-dwelling fish.
  • Chipper → Kipper: As in, “I’m feeling kipper today!”
  • Leonardo DiCaprio →Leonardo DiCarpio

Fish-Related Phrases

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

  • Carpe diem
  • Going swimmingly
  • A fine kettle of fish
  • A drop in the ocean
  • A sea change
  • 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
  • Fishing for compliments
  • A biting review
  • You must lose a fly to catch a trout
  • Old trout
  • Trouser trout
  • Stewed to the gills
  • To fish in troubled waters
  • Devil and the deep blue sea
  • Catch and release
  • To feel gutted
  • Bottom feeder
  • Big fish
  • Big fish in a small pond
  • Cold fish
  • Drink like a fish
  • Fish around
  • Fish eye
  • Fish for
  • Fish for a compliment
  • Fish out
  • Kettle of fish
  • Like a fish out of water
  • Like shooting fish in a barrel
  • Need (something) (about) as much a fish needs a bicycle
  • Need (something) like a fish needs a bicycle
  • Neither fish nor fowl
  • Other fish to fry
  • Pretty kettle of fish
  • Queer fish
  • There are plenty of fish in the sea
  • What’s that got to do with the price of fish?
  • Swim against the stream
  • Swimming with the fished
  • Sink or swim
  • Tilt (or tip) the scales
  • Squashed in like sardines
  • Off the hook
  • By hook or by crook
  • Hook on
  • In deep water
  • Full (or stuffed) to the gills
  • Fishy about the gills (hung over)
  • Shark bait
  • Bait and switch
  • Crow bait
  • Rise to the bait
  • Take the bait
  • Get your bait back (barely making expenses back)
  • Reel something in
  • Reel something off (e.g. say a list of items fast)
  • Wedding tackle
  • Catch a break
  • Catch on fire
  • Catch someone’s fancy, Catch by surprise
  • Catch one’s breath
  • Caught at a bad time
  • Catch in the act
  • Catch off guard
  • Catch red-handed
  • What’s the catch?
  • Catch-22
  • For god’s sake (cod’s hake)

Fish-Related Words

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

swim, swam, creel, salmon, scales, tuna, shark, eel, snook, scad, trout, bluefin tuna, bony, bony fish, catfish, cod, pisces, vetebrate, lungfish, gill, herring, nibble, waders, flounder, gar, goldfish, pet fish, guppy, hagfish, koi, lamprey, loach, oarfish, parrotfish, pollock, piranha, porgy, sturgeon, angling, fishing, carp, sinker, hook, shellfish, anglerfish, skipjack, goby, aquatic animal, aquarium, anchovy, turbot, reef, shad, seafood, catch, aquaculture, cast, rod, tackle, reel, troll, float, bait, netting, handline, wade, wading, mackerel, fishery, swordfish, cichlid, bichir, cartilaginous fish, haddock, milt, panfish, fin, rainbow trout, spawner, prawn, shrimp, game fish, aquatic vertebrate, puffer, pufferfish, crayfish, piscine, whitefish, jellyfish, mullet, freshwater, saltwater, sea, river, lake, stream, creek, electric eel, fishy, gills, scales, scale, sardine, zebrafish, fishermen, fisherman, greenpeace, coral reef, barracuda, grouper, crappie, plaice, minnow, gudgeon, tunny, marlin, garfish, school, fishbone, roe, hake, trawl, seine, shoal, fins, sunfish, ectotherm, fisher, gulper, overfishing, pickerel, fish bowl, fish tank, piscatory, pescetarian, finlet, haaf, ocean, starfish, fisherwoman, recreational fishing, recreational, recreation, leisure, catch-and-release, pectoral fin, dorsal fin, ventral fin, ray, stingray, pectoral, dorsal, ventral, halibut, bream, mudskipper, fisheries, rock fish, bass, marine, clownfish, fish monger, gillnet, fishing rod, sailfish, chum, piscivorous, fillet, trawling, sprat, jig, chub, pike, ganoid, croaker, perch, boneless, kipper, fisherfolk, pompano, flake, fishmeal, gaff, whiting, spearfishing, sashimi, bottom feeder, molly, brill, skipper, pilchard, fish fingers, lance, gut, gutted, flitch, by-catch, bottom trawler

Fish Jokes

If you’re looking for extremely corny fish 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 back rectangle to show the answer.

  • Why is a fish so easy to weigh? – Because it has it’s own scales!
  • What do fish use to make telephone calls? – A shell-phone!
  • What’s the difference between a fish and a piano? – You can’t tuna fish!
  • What does the fish say when she hits into a concrete wall? – Oh dam!
  • What was the Tsar of Russia’s favourite fish? – Tsardines!
  • Why didn’t the crayfish share her toys? – She was too shellfish!
  • How do you tune a fish? – You can tuna fish with it’s scales.
  • What do you get if you cross an abbot with a trout? – A monkfish!
  • What fish goes up the river at 100mph? – A motor pike!
  • Why was the bluefish blue? – Because the blowfish wouldn’t.
  • What did the fish say when her friends kept making annoying puns? – I’m outta this plaice!
  • Why do some fish live at the bottom of the ocean? – Because they dropped out of school.
  • What is the best way to communicate with a fish? – Drop it a line!
  • What has big sharp teeth, a tail, scales, and a trunk? – A pike going on holiday.
  • What did the fish say to his boyfriend? – Your plaice or mine?
  • Why are fish so smart? – Because they live in schools!
  • Where do fish go to borrow money? – To the prawn broker, or sometimes a loan shark
  • Why is a fishmonger never generous? – Because his business makes him sell-fish.
  • What’s the worlds laziest fish? – The kipper!
  • Which fish can perform operations? – A sturgeon!
  • What does a fish wrap round its shoulders to keep warm? – A shoal!
  • Where do baby fish go every morning? – Plaiceschool
  • Why did the fish blush? – Because the see-weed!

Fish Pun Images

We’ve scoured the internet and managed to gather together all the visual fish 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 fish puns? Or maybe you’re looking for something more specific that wasn’t in this entry? More fish jokes? More visual puns? A bigger list of fish 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 fish puns that we don’t, please share them with us in the comments! Thanks for visiting Punpedia 🙂

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 🙂