Play on words

There are emails circulating about the "Washington Post's Mensa Invitational", which has actually nothing to do with either The Washington Post or Mensa, but it is pretty funny. If you type it into google, you will probably see lots of posts or you could just click here to see the website.

The idea is either to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
For example: Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.Or you can to give an alternate meanings for common words.
For example: Flabbergasted (adj.): Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

For higher level students, it would be interesting to play such word games as this in class as warmers or coolers. By doing so they students become more aware of the parts of speech of words (nouns, adjectives and so on..) and also learn to look at words more deeply. If we look at the second example "Flabbergasted" the new mean not only uses part of the original concept but also plays with the word "flab" which students may not have known.