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# spoonerism

noun (a spoonerism, spoonerisms)

«spoonerism» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A spoonerism is a slip of the tongue where you swap the first sounds of two words, often by accident and with a funny result: «a well-boiled icicle» instead of «a well-oiled bicycle». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/#m1)
2. It is named after William Spooner, an Oxford teacher who was said to make this mistake often. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/#m2)

### In the lessons

In English and language lessons it is a fun wordplay puzzle, often used in jokes and olympiad word games; it shows how we plan sounds before we speak. Phrases: «make a spoonerism», «a famous spoonerism».

### Examples

- «Tease my ears» for «ease my tears» is a spoonerism. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/#x1)
- Saying «fighting a liar» instead of «lighting a fire» is a spoonerism. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/#x2)
- Our teacher made a spoonerism and said «bunny phone» for «funny bone». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/#x3)
- Write three spoonerisms of your own. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/#x4)
- Many famous spoonerisms were probably invented by Spooner's students. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/#x5)
- A spoonerism swaps sounds, not letters: «chew the dores» for «do the chores». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/#x6)

### Note

Countable. Spoonerisms swap sounds, so spelling may change. Most famous examples credited to Spooner were made up by others.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «spoonerism» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spoonerism/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«spoonerism» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/spoonerism.html) on Mova free.