punchline
8 synonyms for punchline, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — The final line of a joke or story, which delivers the twist that makes it funny.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun
The final line of a joke or story, which delivers the twist that makes it funny.
“He fluffed the punchline and the whole table went quiet.”
2. noun
The point at which a longer sequence of events delivers its ironic or striking conclusion.
“The punchline is that the safety inspector was the one who fell through the floor.”
3. noun
A person or thing that has become a standing object of ridicule.
“After the third collapse, the club's defence was a punchline.”
How to use punchline
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Informal to neutral; common in journalism and criticism as well as everyday speech.
Etymology
A compound of punch, in the sense of a sudden forceful blow, and line, a line of spoken material.
Full origin of punchline →