Final answer:
A pun is the figure of speech that creates two different meanings from a single word, often for comedic or rhetorical effect. It is characterized by a word having multiple meanings or sounding like another word.
Step-by-step explanation:
The figure of speech which creates two different meanings or interpretations out of a single word is a pun. A pun is the figure of speech that creates two different meanings from a single word, often for comedic or rhetorical effect. It is characterized by a word having multiple meanings or sounding like another word.
A pun is a play on words, where a word has multiple meanings or sounds like another word, leading to a humorous or rhetorical effect. For instance, the joke "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana" relies on the pun of 'flies' being both a verb describing how time passes swiftly and a noun for the insect that is attracted to fruit.
Other forms of figurative language include metonymy, where one thing is represented by another closely associated with it, and synecdoche, where a part is used to represent the whole or vice versa. Metaphors and similes are also common, both comparing two things, but metaphors do so directly, while similes use 'like' or 'as'.