Double Entendre: Definition and Examples in Literature

A double entendre is a sentence or phrase where there are two possible interpretations: the first is straightforward and obvious, while the second is sexually suggestive or offensive in nature. A writer may structure a sentence using creative wordplay, phrases, synonyms, homophones, or similar sounding words to make the true intention of the sentence ambiguous, leaving the reader to work out the double understanding.

Double entendres can be literary devices that move along a story, provide a riddle, or inject humor. People also often use a double entendre as a figure of speech to create innuendo (typically bawdy sexual innuendo) in the second meaning. A triple entendre is a written phrase or figure of speech with three possible meanings.

The definition of double entendre—which has French origins—is “a twofold meaning” or “double meaning.” In French, “entendre” means “to hear,” “to understand,” or “to mean.” However, “entendre” is an obsolete French word, replaced with the word “entente.” English language speakers use “double entendre” today, while the phrase “double entente” is mostly unused among French speakers.

Double entendres appear frequently in popular contemporary culture, especially as humorous rhetorical devices in television shows and movies, although their earliest uses were in literature. Throughout the history of English language literature, writers have used double entendres to amuse or humor readers. For example, in Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens included a character named Charley Bates whom other characters frequently referred to as Master Bates—an allusion to the term “masturbate.”

William Shakespeare also found the use of double entendre to be perfect for comedy; his works Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and Venus and Adonis, among others, feature many examples of double entendres.

In Homer’s unabridged work The Odyssey, the author used double entendre to propel the story forward. The cyclops Polyphemus captures the main character, Odysseus, while trapped on an island. Odysseus then tells the cyclops that his name is “no man,” which Polyphemus takes to be true. Later, when Odysseus attacks and blinds the beast, Polyphemus yells to the other cyclops (also spelled cyclopes): “No man is killing me by fraud; no man is killing me by force.” The other cyclops therefore disregard the complaint.

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