Sometimes, stating something plainly is not a good option. When that's the case, and simply leaving it unstated won't work either, you must resort to using double meanings.
For a statement to have a double meaning, it must have one obvious meaning and one deliberate meaning, concealed so that only those "in the know" will understand that second meaning.
This is frequently used to pass secret messages along, as it is often more subtle than using an obvious code. Alternatively, a sub-culture may adopt a phrase from the main culture, but assign their own meaning to it, understood only within that sub-culture.
Other times a double meaning is intended to be understood by everyone, but either the speaker has trouble saying it directly, or wants to be able to deny saying it later. And sometimes it's intended by the writer, but unintended by the speaker.
Subtropes
- Ambiguous Syntax
- Code Emergency
- Covert Distress Code
- Double Entendre
- Double Meaning Gag
- Double-Meaning Title
- Double Speak
- Dual-Meaning Chorus
- Exact Words
- False Reassurance
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A character makes a statement that makes sense in-universe, but also has a second, out-of-universe meaning.
- Multiple Reference Pun
- Multitasked Conversation
- No Man of Woman Born
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations
- Public Secret Message
- Pun
- Riddle
- Spy Speak
- Trouble Entendre
Sister tropes include Literal Genie, Literal-Minded, Literal Metaphor, Prophecy Twist, Subtext, and Talking through Technique.
And if it can have two meanings at the same time, then it’s Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs.
Examples that fit into one of the subtropes should be placed on the appropriate page; this page is for examples that don't fit elsewhere.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Attack on Titan:
- In a flashback of Annie and Eren sparring together, Mikasa's implied to be jealous through interrupting them and challenging Annie to fight her instead. The other trainees gather in excitedment at who will win, while Reiner asks: "Which one would you pick, Eren?" (note the choice of words). In response, he stares at them while thinking "Which one..." and the flashback fades out on that line, making it seem like the narrative was hinting towards more than just the outcome of the fight. While likely meant as pure Ship Tease in canon, it might have been a nod to official parodies where Mikasa and Annie are really portrayed as Eren's Betty and Veronica.
- When Reiner calls out Annie as a slacker during training, Annie seems quite annoyed by this and, after beating Eren, challenges Reiner to spar with her, and beats him just as easily as she does Eren. While this can be merely interpreted as Reiner teaching Eren about "being a soldier" and/or teasing Annie, the fact that Annie and Reiner are both traitors, but don't seem on the best terms means this scene can be interpreted as Reiner challenging Annie to prove her loyalty. Though why this involves beating up Eren is not yet clear.
- Choujin X: In chapter 27, the audience sees a flashback to the massacre of Simon's family, in which a Nue Chimera held up the severed heads of the Kagomuras and mocked their status as "heroes." Initially the audience is lead to believe he's referring to how the Kagomuras became complacent in their powers and grew weak. Later on in chapter 49, we find out that the Kagomura clan aided Sora in carrying out her genocide in Antoland... and suddenly that line takes on an entirely different meaning.
- Excuse Me Dentist, It's Touching Me!: "The Unmoving" is a title Takuma received both because of his prowess in battle and because of his apparent impotence.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: At a funeral for his friend Maes Hughes, Col. Roy Mustang comments on how it's a "terrible day for rain" as he weeps. In truth, it was a sunny day at the funeral. In addition to having a Sand in My Eyes moment, the scene also references the Achilles' heel of his flame alchemy: he cannot use his power if he or his target are wet. In other words, he feels completely helpless and powerless.
- In Moriarty the Patriot, William dared Sherlock to catch him, and Sherlock swore to do it...but William certainly didn't mean catching William as he fell to his death like Sherlock did.
- In-Universe in My Hero Academia. After beating a particularly powerful villain, All For One, the Greater-Scope Villain of the series and the mastermind behind the League of Villains, while being broadcast to the world, All Might pointed to the camera, saying "You're next." (Or in the English Dub, "Now, it's your turn.") The masses watching the fight cheered as they saw it as a warning to other villains at large. But for those in the know and Midoriya in particular, it meant that the age of All Might is over and now it's time for Midoriya to step in as his successor.
- The English dub of Pokémon 2000 has an ancient prophecy which states that if the balance between Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres is disrupted, "The earth shall turn to Ash". It is initially believed that the prophecy fortells The End of the World as We Know It, but the heroes realize that there is another way the prophecy could be interpreted: that if the world was imperiled, it would turn to someone named Ash for salvation — someone like Ash Ketchum.
- In Time of Eve, a character is asked why she frequents an establishment where revealing whether one is a human or an android is not allowed. Her answer is carefully ambiguous enough to work whether she is a human or an android, even though those two perspectives would normally be quite distinct.
Art
- Creepazoids: The King in the fourth series is both a mummy of presumably royal descent, and has a demeanor similar to a "King" of the modern age.
Comedy
- George Carlin added three words to his list of the seven words you couldn't say on television—"fart," "turd" and "twat." The last word was added because it was a term for the sexual anatomy that didn't have a double meaning like "snatch," "box" and "pussy" do (which in proper context could even be used in a Walt Disney movie).
Comic Books
- Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Präludium
- Sam says 'two's enough' which means she has had two meals, and two victims (Otto and presumably the driver of the car who picked her up from the woods).
- Sam says she 'found her appetite' which refers to how she literally has appetite for German food now, and also how she has discovered how much she enjoys killing people.
- In Supergirl story Young Love, Dick Malverne's "You really are super, Linda" is intended as this, in that he is either flattering his girlfriend or alternatively implying he knows she is Supergirl.
Fan Works
- In Gensokyo 20XXV, an age-regressed Reimu's "Am I dying?" is supposed to be intended as this, in that she is either asking if she is actually dying or, alternatively, asking why is someone is so sad about the situation she's accepted or, she could be asking both.
- The Lay of Mischka One-Leg
is about an injured soldier who encounters what he thinks is a vila in the woods, but is actually Belarus herself. A lot of what she says can be taken as being a vila; she claims she ate his leg (by burying it) note , has magic that convinces people to die for her, and her sister flies with the Night Witches.
- A Monster's Marriage:
- All conversations between Jaune and Cinder are full of comments that point to Cinder's secret life. These comments can be either disguised truths on Cinder's part or ironic truths on Jaune's part.
Jaune: He chuckled. "You're bad."
Cinder: "You have no idea." - After Emerald suddenly leaves their house because Cinder mentioned that she felt insecure about herself, Jaune points out that he never realized that Emerald had so many problems, to which Cinder replies that she is good at putting up facades (secretly alluding to Emerald's power of illusions).
- Jaune once tells Mercury that Cinder really likes to talk in hyperbole, and that she sometimes seems to have a big ego, to which Mercury agrees with him.
Jaune: "I swear, Cindy's got a touch of megalomania."
Mercury: Mercury chuckled nervously. "Man, can you imagine?"
- All conversations between Jaune and Cinder are full of comments that point to Cinder's secret life. These comments can be either disguised truths on Cinder's part or ironic truths on Jaune's part.
- Swapped Attorney: Mia Fey: In the prologue comic, Miles says "your days are numbered" while flirting with Phoenix. At the time, he meant that it was only a matter of time before they got together, but the last page reveals that Miles was reminiscing while looking at the case files for Phoenix's murder.
Jokes
- There is this geek joke with the physicist highwayman and "This is a Poynting vector" (shows gun) "- don't let it become a Killing vector!" Belongs under "Pun", of course, but there is a SF story where the double meaning of "Killing vector" is weapunized with definitely no pun intended to sent the baddies, who don't get it, into certain black hole death.
- Q: Why was the Boy Scout kicked out of his troop? A: They caught him eating a brownie. This can be either a cannibalism or sex joke.
- Q: How do you stop a rhino from charging A: Take away its credit card. (alternately, unplug it)
Films — Animation
- In Brave, to undo a spell, the witch tells Merida that she and her mother must mend what was torn by pride. Merida assumes this means a tapestry she slashed open during a fight between her and her mother; however, it's left ambiguous whether the witch really meant the tapestry or the relationship between Merida and her mother.
- In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Puss is first accosted by the Wolf bounty hunter in the bar, who makes the boast that "Everyone thinks they'll be the one to defeat (him), but no one has ever escaped (him) yet." Puss at first takes this at face value, even yawning, but considering the Wolf's true identity, this statement has a much deeper meaning.
- In the Novelization of Turning Red, Mei narrates "The next morning, I woke up feeling fuzzy." which initially seems like it just means she isn't fully alert yet but given the fact that she is in her giant red panda form at the time it has the second meaning that she was subconsciously aware of her body being covered in fuzzy fur.
Films — Live-Action
- The Avengers (2012): The Other tells Thanos that to fight Humans would be "to court death" (a common phrase meaning incredibly dangerous). Fans of the comics know that Thanos literally wants to date the incarnation of Death.
- The Baker's Wife: After his wife has returned, the baker says that he forgives her, but then chews out their female cat for having left their male cat. His true meaning is not lost on his wife, who bursts into tears.
- The Batman (2022): The Riddler riddles tend to play out via this trope as a way to make them ironic and karmic from his perspective, make his challenges more intense for Batman and the GCPD, and to portray the two as visceral and violent as a way to inspire others to his cause and instill fear to Gotham's populace.
- The Riddler's first cipher is determined to be a coded message that spells out DRIVE. Batman figures out this means two things: that the next clue is in the car of the Riddler's victim, and that the clue is stored in a disk drive... specifically a "thumb drive", with the victim's thumb included.
- The Riddler's second victim is killed by being injected with arsenic (rat poison) and then having rats eat his face. It's a message symbolizing how corruption is eating Gotham alive, that there's a "rat" in the centre of the conspiracy, and that he wants the rat dead.
- The Riddler's second cipher has a clue about "rata alada", meaning "rat with wings". Gordon and Batman determine it could also mean a pigeon, specifically a stool pigeon, and focusing on the "wings" aspect, initially suspect Penguin, because a penguin has wings. Penguin angrily suggests Batman himself to be the "rat with wings" when they accuse him, because a bat also has wings, and bats are often called flying rats. It turns out the stool pigeon is Falcone — a falcon also has wings.
- The note addressed to Batman alongside the letter bomb intended for Bruce Wayne reading "See You In Hell" turns out to be an unintentional one: Batman entered the situation assuming the Riddler found out his true identity and the letter was intended as a Post-Mortem One-Liner but Edward's greeting when they finally meet ("I told you I'd see you in Hell") and his later breakdown implies it was actually a sincere invitation to Arkham Asylum to protect him from the bombings.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Arnim Zola, trying to kill Cap, Natasha and himself with a missile strike, tauntingly tells Cap that the two of them are both "out of time". Not only has he been stalling for time while the missile is incoming, but a shared trait between him and Cap is that both of them are living, displaced relics of WWII which have only survived to see the present day due to abnormal or outright unnatural means.
- In Glass Onion, Miles repeatedly tells the other Disruptors that the weekend getaway will be devoted to solving his murder. While this was meant to refer to the planned murder mystery to be played for the weekend, the getaway would also reveal Miles' "murder" - the murder he committed of Andi and later, Duke.
- Godzilla vs. Kong: Outwardly, Apex Cybernetics call themselves such because they're a company which specializes in developing leading hi-tech and pride themselves on pioneering new advances. The hidden second meaning of the name is that they intend to usurp the Alpha Titans, with a particular focus on getting rid of Godzilla (thereby becoming the new King of the Monsters, essentially the "Apex" lifeform on Earth), with "Cybernetics" being the means they plan to use to achieve this aim. It's also hinted in the movie (and more heavily implied in the novelization and the movie art book One Will Fall), that Apex head Walter Simmons' comment to Ren Serizawa about making humanity "the apex species" has a double meaning of its own – it refers to Apex's Muggle Power justification for their plans, but also refers to how Simmons intends for the Apex company to essentially rule all of humanity once they've turned the world into their own corporate dystopia.
- In Jason and the Argonauts, Jason tells a camp's general that he is visiting Thessaly to reclaim his rightful throne from Pelias, who had usurped it twenty years before. The general tells Jason, "When your father defended his throne, no man fought harder than I." Of course, the general is secretly Pelias himself, so the second meaning is, in a sense, "truer" than the seemingly straightforward one (he fought hard enough to win, after all).
- Man of Steel:
- Not only does Zod's message ("You Are Not Alone") inform humans that aliens exist, it lets Superman know he's not the last Kryptonian.
- Lois greeting Clark on his first day working at the Daily Planet with "Welcome to the Planet" as she already knows he's a Human Alien.
- Nurse on Wheels: Nurse Jones does her Driving Tests with the Top School of Motoring. This name works on two levels — that out of all schools of motoring it is the best, and also because a Mr. Top runs it.
- In the 1995 film of Jane Austen's Persuasion, Wentworth says a great many things that only thinly veil references to the pain of his and Anne's broken engagement from eight years ago. He apologizes for the shock she must have seeing him again... here in Bath, after what happened in Lyme. He has so many regrets... over encouraging Louisa to be impetuous until her fall. Heartbroken men never truly get over their loss... Benwick, of course, not himself.
Literature
- Discworld: The motto of the Seamstresses' Guild is "Often licked, never beaten." The usual interpretation is about not giving up in a fight, but in the context of prostitution, it's a boast that their working girls are safe and protected.
- Dune (1965): In the greenhouse room, Jessica finds a note from Lady Fenring, a fellow Bene Gesserit. The last line of the message is "On that path lies danger", a secret warning code that there was a hidden message nearby. Jessica finds the hidden message as a series of dots on the underside of a nearby leaf.
- Evolution (2002): The ruler of Cata Huuk is known as the Potus. While a passable cognate for potentate, it also shares a spelling with the acronym POTUS for President of the United States.
- The Foundation Trilogy: A deliberate In-Universe version is when Hari Seldon admits during Foundation (1951) that he created two Foundations at 'opposite ends of the galaxy'; one at a remote backwater planet at the edge of the galactic arms called Terminus, and the other at Star's End. During Foundation and Empire, characters start trying to discover the location of the Second Foundation that Hari Seldon keeps mentioning. In Second Foundation, characters use 'the other end of the galaxy' as a clue. Some are doing it spatially (i.e. a planet on the opposite edge of the galaxy), others temporally (i.e. Terminus was the last planet to be settled by that point; by that logic, the Second Foundation must be on the first planet — Earth-That-Was). Some of these suggestions were deliberately misleading ideas by the Second Foundation in order to maintain their secrecy. Hari Seldon meant Trantor, whose archaic nickname was Star's End, was at the galactic core (in a spiral, the opposite ends are the centre and the far arms), and was the sociological opposite of Terminus (the centre of galactic business/government versus a remote backwater).
- Helm: In Denesse Sensei's first conversation with Leland, his comments about the tea are simultaneously commentary on the effects of the Helm.
- In the Left Behind books, after Carpathia's resurrection, the standard greeting becomes "He is risen," with the response being "he is risen indeed": the "he" refers to Carpathia. The Christians reclaim the greeting (since it was originally the Paschal greeting), placing a slight emphasis on the "he" to indicate that they are referring to Jesus instead of Carpathia. This allows the Christians to interact with the rest of the world without drawing suspicion to themselves, while at the same time not violating their beliefs.
- Longsummer Nights: At the end of "Seeds of Solace", River tells Alessia that they'll tend the garden to give her collection a better display area. Alessia pulls their hand over her heart and says there are a lot of things that need tending, and they assure her they can handle it. The two are not just referring to the garden, but also personal healing.
- The Scar: The Shrouded in Myth Uther Doul is said to carry an artifact called the Mightblade, which he stole from the Ghosthead Empire and used to destroy them three thousand years ago. Uther clarifies that he's of normal age and had nothing to do with the fall of the Ghosthead Empire, but he did recover a sword from their ruins. It's more accurately called the Possible Sword. People misunderstood the name: it's not "might" as in "mighty", but "might" as in "could be".
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- A possibly unintentional one in A Game of Thrones: Jorah's last reply could equally well mean "Alright, let's drop the subject," or "You, too, will be dead one day" — although the intonation of the spoken words would point to one meaning or the other.
Jorah: The Dothraki claim that someday ghost grass will cover the entire world, and then all life will end.
Dany: I don’t want to talk about that now. It's so beautiful here, I don't want to think about everything dying.
Jorah: As you will, Khaleesi. - The so-called "Hand of the King" has a figurative meaning akin to "right arm of someone", the name of the office indicating that he's acting as if the actual hand of the king was doing tasks, that is, he's working in his stead. This is open to some puns, like "when the king shits, it is the hand that cleans", which can be taken literally in the actual situation, but also figuratively according to the context (when the king makes mistakes, it is the duty of the Hand to solve them before things become troublesome).
- A possibly unintentional one in A Game of Thrones: Jorah's last reply could equally well mean "Alright, let's drop the subject," or "You, too, will be dead one day" — although the intonation of the spoken words would point to one meaning or the other.
- Turn Coat (2009): Harry fights a Skinwalker when the pixie Toot-Toot has a Little Damn Heroes moment by attacking the skinwalker to give him a moment to recover. After one of the Senior Council gives him assistance and drives it away, he comments about Toot Toot throwing himself into danger to help him commenting, "Little guy like that, taking on something so far out his weight class. That was a sight to see.", but he's also commenting about Dresden as well.
- Wayside School:
- There is no nineteenth story. Sideways Stories from Wayside School additionally has no nineteenth story.
- Myron names a bird "Oddly." It's mentioned that he named the bird oddly.
- Mac is described as a "curious kid," both meaning that he's inquisitive, and also just weird.
- The Ultimate Test, a large test that tests everyone's skills at everything, turns out to also be the ultimate test of the other three Unbreakables' friendship with Maurecia.
Live-Action TV
- In a twist, in Tara's song, "Under Your Spell", in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More with Feeling", the metaphorical meaning is the more obvious and positive one, about how much she loves Willow, and Willow has brought her out of her shell and introduced her to happiness. However, if the lyrics are taken completely literally, they're about how Willow has been magically manipulating Tara's mind and memories.
- Fellow Travelers:
- When Hawkins Fuller returns to Washington, D.C. after visiting his estranged father at their family home, he goes straight to Timothy Laughlin's apartment. Tim asks "Where have you been?", and Hawk answers "Doesn't matter. I'm home now." For Hawk, his lover Tim is his home, much more so than the house he grew up in or his own apartment in the city.
- While dictating a fake breakup letter that Tim must jot down and then send to Mary in order save her career while she's under suspicion by the government for being a lesbian, the first half of it actually reflect Hawk's true feelings for Tim.
Hawk: "I fell for you the first moment I laid eyes on you. Right away, I was taken by your beauty, but I was won over by your mind. To touch you, to feel your body against mine brought me more happiness than you could ever know. I know you love me. And my feelings for you are deep. But I've always known we have no real future together."
- Game of Thrones:
- The Spice King of Qarth deftly counters Daenerys' accusation that the Thirteen have broken their promise to receive her by noting that they have indeed "received" (i.e. met with) her.
- After reminiscing that his father was a kind and loving man who nearly led his family to ruin, Tywin states that he is cold. After a palpable silence, Arya decides on the less personal interpretation and offers to gather more wood for the fire.
- When Lysa asks if he remembers their "wedding night" many years ago, Littlefinger replies, "Like it was yesterday." Lysa doesn't notice, perhaps because she's so obsessed, but it's clear from his face that it's not a happy memory.
- How I Met Your Mother: Robin follows her boyfriend Ted to a nightclub and asks the bouncer about him. We are shown the event, in which Ted, who has been acting unlike himself, is flirting with another woman and agreeing to go to her apartment. Ted is confronted by Marshall, who says "Aren't you afraid a certain someone will find out about this? This isn't you, Ted." It turns out that Barney had been calling himself "Ted Mosby", so that's who the bouncer thought he was; we were shown Ted instead of Barney because that's how Robin would have imagined the bouncer's account. Meanwhile, Marshall's "certain someone" was the real Ted, and "This isn't you" was meant literally.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022):
- "In Throes of Increasing Wonder...":
- Lestat de Lioncourt tells Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lily that he disembarked in New Orleans because of the music and dancing, "but then there was food." While the local cuisine was served at this public gathering, as a vampire, Lestat would've eaten a couple of humans that night for his meal.
- Because of the homophobia which existed in 1910, Lestat can't overtly flirt with Louis during their first meeting, but he still conveys his interest in roundabout ways. Lestat is outright leering at Louis and speaking with a sultry voice while recounting how he had "sampled" many New Orleans women, including those with "cinnamon" skin tones. Lestat is subtly expressing his desire to "taste" Louis because the latter is a "cinnamon" Creole. Later, when Lestat says that he and Louis are "Destined to be very good friends," what he really means is that they're "Destined to be lovers."
- While reminiscing about a young violinist he once knew, Lestat describes him as "a boy of infinite beauty and sensitivity" as he looks Louis straight in the eye and hands him a drink. It's apparent that Lestat deems Louis to be equally beautiful and sensitive as the violinist.
- Whenever Lestat and the topic of home (e.g. "I said to myself, 'Lestat, unpack your trunks, you're home'"; "Yes, I feel quite at home here") or New Orleans (e.g. "[Lestat] was in love with my city and wanted to know everything he could about it"; "There's no place for me other than New Orleans") are mentioned together, it indirectly points to Louis — not New Orleans — being Lestat's beloved home. Episode 7 features Lestat soulfully monologuing about New Orleans to Louis on the balcony, its connotation being that Louis is the product of the environment he grew up in, and Lestat finds him beautiful because of it.
Lestat: There's not an inch of this city that wasn't built from the fierce wilderness that surrounds it. Hurricanes, floods, fevers. The damp climate on every painted sign, every stone facade. High windows, through which enameled bits of civilization glitter. Silhouettes emerging, wandering out to catch a silent flash of lightning. The silky warmth of summer rain. Desperately alive... and desperately fragile.
- "Like Angels Put in Hell by God": Lestat is looking at a dog when he says, "Back in your cage, sweetheart," but the person he's truly addressing is Claudia, who is a stowaway on a train heading to New York. He won't allow her to leave New Orleans because he's concerned about Louis' deteriorating mental and physical state, so he has boarded the baggage car to forcibly take her back home.
- "The Thing Lay Still": Louis quips "The king's hair (heir) has betrayed the king" when he spots Lestat's discarded powdered wig, who is garbed as a French king at the Mardi Gras ball. Louis can be regarded as Lestat's heir because he's Lestat's vampire son (the French monarchy had practiced Salic law, so women were excluded from inheriting the throne), and Louis is indeed conspiring to murder his despotic maker during the after-party feast.
- "In Throes of Increasing Wonder...":
- Law & Order: UK. The detectives and prosecutors watch a tape of CP Alesha Philips being raped by her doctor, who caps it off by tauntingly asking her, "Didn't that feel good?" Later, when the detectives arrest the man, he whines that Matt's hurting him when he handcuffs him. Matt responds by sneering, "Yeah, I know. Didn't that feel good?", not only effectively telling him that (a) They have irrefutable proof of his assault on Alesha, but also (b) that he enjoyed inflicting pain on him, much as he'd enjoyed doing to his victims.
- Law & Order. When DA Jack is accused of prosecutorial misconduct regarding a past case, ADA Claire goes to interview the former ADA who worked with him at the time. When the woman mentions that she and Jack had been having an affair at the time, Claire gently suggests "maybe that's affecting your judgement." The other woman bluntly replies "And it's not affecting yours?," referring either to the fact that either Claire's jealousy over the previous relationship or Claire's own relationship with Jack is keeping her from being objective.
- Legion: In "Chapter 22", the first thing Gabrielle says to Charles Xavier is that it's a nice day, and he replies, "Beautiful." What he's also conveying is that he thinks she's beautiful.
- A sad version in the Stargate Atlantis episode McKay and Mrs. Miller. Rodney and his sister Jeannie are having an argument about how they haven't talked in four years since Rodney decided that Jeannie quitting physics to raise her daughter was a mistake. "Rod", an alternate universe version of Rodney, hears them talking and asks, "Hey, you guys got something over there?" Jeannie averts her eyes and says "No, we don't" as she walks away. Fortunately, they make up by the end of the episode.
- In her monologue when she hosted Saturday Night Live in 2024, Sydney Sweeney said "You might've seen me in Anyone but You or Euphoria...You definitely didn't see me in Madame Web," a double dig at the latter, since it can either be interpreted as Sweeney slamming the weak performance of Madame Web at the box office, or trying to gaslight the ones who did see it out of remembering that she was in the movie.
- The Tower (2010): Maxim's boss tells him that if he plans to quit his job, then his "only way is up", and makes a gesture clearly implying Heaven, then clarifies that he meant working at the Tower. Maxim takes both points by trying to kill himself at the Tower's rooftop.
Roleplay
- Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
- During the Mass Super-Empowering Event, Hyeon discovers that a fire extinguisher is effective at driving off the smoke-like apparitions that attack them. Later on, when he's with Nadine, he asks his friend (who doesn't know about the superpowers) to fetch three extinguishers for him. When Nadine asks him why, he couches the real answer in a common phrase so that Nadine is the only one to pick it up: "Where's there fire, there's smoke."
- Ciro tries the same thing with Nadine later, when she asks him what he was talking to the principal about. The real answer is that he and the principal were discussing events related to the superpowers- since Nadine's lackeys are nearby, and Ciro doesn't want them clued in, he instead tells Nadine that the principal was merely hoping that the exams didn't go up in smoke. Nadine doesn't catch on this time, however, leading the gang to instead believe that Ciro had gotten caught for dealing drugs.
Theatre
- In the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe play Islander, Eilidh lives on the island with her granny, while her mother is a teacher on the mainland. There is a song near the start in which Eilidh video-calls her mother over a very bad connection, and tries to tell her about her experiences that day, but her mother is still working. Eilidh has the refrain "Can you see me, can you hear me?" which isn't just about the call quality. This gets reprised by Eilidh's mother near the end, leaving a voicemail when Eilidh isn't speaking to her.
- Much Ado About Nothing: Benedick thinks Beatrice is in love with him (she isn't), and when she is sent to bring him in to dinner he thinks she's sending him secret signals; he cites this trope by name.
"Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner." There's a double meaning in that. "I took no more pains for those thanks than you took pains to thank me." That's as much as to say, "Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks." If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain. If I do not love her, I am a Jew.
- Westeros: An American Musical: At some point, plans are made to use a hairnet to smuggle a small item into an event without the person actually wearing the hairnet being aware of it. As the female character meant to wear the hairnet receives it at is asked to wear it at the event in question, the orchestrator of the smuggling says "That hairnet is meant to go over her head"; it can be read both as an idiosyncratic way of saying "on her head" and an allusion to the fact that the wearer must have no idea that she's being used as a smuggler.
Video Games
- Civilization VI: The French leader, Catherine de Medici, is a master of espionage. On first greeting the player in a game, she remarks 'I do so look forward to learning everything there is to know about you'.
- Dragon Quest Builders has its Arc Words: "You are not a hero." This is true in two ways. The first is that, unlike a hero, the Builder cannot get stronger through besting enemies in combat, like in a traditional RPG. Instead, the only way for the Builder to stand up to more dangerous threats is to craft and use items that can stand up to them. The second is more direct: the Builder is tasked by the Goddess with rebuilding Alefgard and setting the stage for a new hero to come and save the day. Of course, since there's no telling how long the people of Alefgard will have to wait for this savior, the Builder ultimately decides to Screw Destiny and save the realm, themself, in spite of the Goddess's warnings of revoking her benediction over them.
- At the end of EarthBound (1994), Porky reveals himself as the left-hand man of the Big Bad Giygas. His stated motivations of "I assist only the strong and able! That's Porky." can come off two ways; the stated meaning is an admission of who he is fundamentally as a person. The hidden meaning is that he secretly is all in it for himself and sees Giygas as a glorified attack dog to use as he sees fit, seeing himself as the "strong and able".
- Deep in the first Eye of the Beholder game, at the start of the Mind Flayer level, a wall engraving reads "Alignment must be true." Since this is a D&D game, you'd expect it to be a cryptic mention about Character Alignment. In truth, it's a hint about how to open the next secret passage, which is at the end of an alignment of hidden doors.
- Niko cooks up a false resume for a mission in Grand Theft Auto IV when he needs to secure an interview at a particular law firm. While there are some outright lies on it (like saying he went to college and graduated in the top 1% of his class), a lot of the other things are just his actual qualifications as a criminal, but phrased in such a way they seem like his specialties as a lawyer. "Dealing with emerging markets in the West Indies, particularly Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Instrumental in the trading of commodities from those emerging markets."
- Jhin from League of Legends is an assassin who uses murder as a form of artwork, claiming that each kill is special 'performance'. One of his battle quotes is "When they see you, they will cry" - whether this is from being moved or horrified is unsaid and, quite possibly for Jhin, is not seen as important.
- NieR: while fighting the boss Shade in the Aerie, Kaine calls out the Shade's attempt to lull her into accepting her death by imitating her beloved Grandma, stating that her grandmother inspired her to continue to live on and come to terms with her "mutated body". This refers both to her nature as a half-Shade and as an intersex woman.
- Rakuen: The lyrics of "Walking Through The Night" can be interpreted as a lullaby the Mom wrote to help the Boy go to sleep. But in the context of the scene it's sung in, the Mom is comforting her dying son, encouraging him to not fear passing on to the afterlife and leaving her behind.
Close your eyes, it is time for you to tell the world goodnightIt may be dark inside, but there are still stars shining in the skyClose your eyes, I am here and everything will be alrightI am right here by your side as we go walking through the night
- Many Cogs and cog attacks in Toontown Online have double meanings to fit corporate terms. For example, a Double Talker, a cog with two faces for one in order to double talk, can use the attack Bounce Check, where they literally bounce a check at you.
- Undertale:
- Near the end of a neutral or pacifist run, monsters in the New Home area tell you a story about their king, Asgore. Asgore had adopted a child that had fallen into the monster world and he raised him as his own. When the child had fallen ill and died, his son by blood, Asriel, took his fallen sibling's body back to the village where had came from, but was attacked by the humans instead and he wound up dying as a result. Asgore flew into a fit of rage and vowed to obtain seven human souls in order to break the barrier that kept his people trapped so that he could extract revenge. With six souls already obtained, yours is the last one he needs to succeed. The last group of monsters tell you that you should be excited and happy because you will be "free" very soon. While the monster's version of "free" means that you will soon be killed and be freed from the physical world, it can also take on another meaning where you will be free from the underground and finally return home. Either version can fit depending on if you been playing peacefully or if you had killed a handful of monsters along the way.
- In the Genocide route, Asgore will ask the player upon their arrival what kind of monster they are. It can be seen as either A) he believes he's looking at another monster in the underground, but can't identify it, or B) a literal You Monster! moment.
Visual Novels
- In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the culprit of the second trial claims that if they're convicted, "everyone" might die. A few characters suspect that the "everyone" the culprit means isn't the remaining students (since if someone other than the blackened is convicted in a class trial, everyone but the blackened will be executed, while the blackened "graduates," and escapes), but the culprit clarifies what they said and claims to be referring to the other students. The end of the trial reveals that the former interpretation is correct, as Kirumi was supposedly made acting prime minister of Japan, and believes that the nation will be doomed to ruin if she is executed. She deliberately misled the students in order to manipulate them and graduate.
- In the "Prologue to Grisaia" short story in The Eden of Grisaia Yumiko, Amane and Michiru are told to expect a new honor student transfer student at Mihama, a school for students with severe psychological issues that interfere with their ability to attend normal schools. When Sachi shows up, she's intelligent, dutiful, athletic, friendly and more. Following a flippant suggestion about cleaning the school, Michiru comes back the next morning to find that she stayed the entire evening and into the morning, working nonstop to clean the school. It's not that Sachi happens to be an honor student but rather that she's here because she's an "honor student" and obsessively follows all orders, no matter how absurd or destructive.
- Slay the Princess has the Voice of the Cold. While he's certainly emotionally cold, as in callous. However, some remarks by the Princess and the other voices imply that he has a literal cold presence about him, e.g. the Voice of the Stubborn calling him a "chilly little freak ".
Web Animation
- Helluva Boss: In "Seeing Stars", when Loona gives Octavia advice about her relationship with Stolas, she is also talking to herself out loud about her own relationship with Blitzo.
Loona: Sometimes... sometimes it's not as simple as that. This kind of shit gets messy, and everybody's got issues, especially dads. And sometimes they fuck up — well, all the time. But, that doesn't mean they don't care. [...] I mean... try to cut your dad some slack. He may not always get it right, but... he's trying. That's more important than you think.
Webcomics
- The Handbook of Heroes: In "You Are Too Prepared!", where Quest Giver is writing an illuminated manuscript and says, "The illumination must be perfect!", he's referring to the visual flourishes must be perfect. But the Alt Text uses "illumination" as in the amount of light:
"Quest Giver's bushy hairstyle imposes penalties to his Perception. That's why he can only see in areas that are brightly illuminated. :D "
- Homestuck: Doc Scratch is an "excellent host". Referring to both his Faux Affably Evil nature and his status as Lord English's host vessel.
- I Love Yoo: Used several times. One of the most notable examples is the use of the word "nobody" or "no-one" as a way to refer to the character Nol.
- Paranatural:
- In Chapter 5. When Hijack is surprised that Isabel isn't going to destroy him, Isaac starts reaching for her from behind with an alarmed expression. Then Isabel asks Hijack, "Is that really who you think I am?" Isaac stops, looking surprised, then pulls his hand back, crossing his arms and looking away. Though the words are directed at Hijack, they are also applicable to Isabel's recent conflict with Isaac, and he has realized he's been unfair to her.
- At the end of Chapter 5. As Garcia and Spender watch the kids walk home, Garcia asks Spender if he wants to give them a ride. Spender says sombrely that they're fine on their own, reflecting his own feelings about being useless to them as an adult figure. With more assurance, he says, "They're together. They'll be just fine," reflecting how the kids' bonds have been repaired and strengthened, giving them the power to face things together.
- At the end of Chapter 6, DJ Mothman invites Professor Bigfoot out for beef wine. They have the following exchange:
Professor Bigfoot: …I've tried it before. In the moment, it felt like an unforgettable experience. But… it didn't stick with me.
DJ Mothman: …Give it a second chance… and I promise it won't let you down.- They are not talking just about beef wine, but also about their relationship. They shared some experience in the past, and Mothman is inviting Bigfoot to rekindle their relationship.
- In Chapter 5
Web Video
- Nightmare Time: In the episode "Honey Queen," the winner of the titular Honey Queen pageant is described as "the sweetest woman in Hatchetfield." In this case, "sweetest" doesn't refer to the winner's personality, but to her literal taste. The winner is sacrificed to an ancient god, Nibblenephim, who has a taste for those with a desire to win.
Western Animation
- In Central Park, Season 1 "Hat Luncheon", when Helen meets a former maid named Lucy who inherited everything from her previous employer, Lucy gives Helen advice on waiting to inherit's Bitsy's fortune by telling her "Where there's a will, there's way", and then whispers to her to make sure she's in Bitsy's will. The phrase means to have determination to overcome a difficult obstacle, which Helen is going to need if she continues to be Bitsy's assistant, and if Bitsy has a will then there's a way to inherit everything from her. The double meaning is used again in Helen's Villain Song "If There's a Will".
- The Gravity Falls episode "The Time Traveler's Pig" has quite a few:
- When Dipper and Mabel get back to the present, but are unsure of which timeline they are in, they soon see Wendy holding the stuffed animal Dipper won for her and saying, "This is the best present ever!"
- When Dipper makes a speech to Wendy about how people make mistakes and tight pants are overrated, she tells him, "Dude, you lost me." For her, it just means she's confused, but to Dipper it's a reminder of what he has to sacrifice in order for Mabel to be with Waddles: he's going to ruin his chances with Wendy, and essentially "lose" her to Robbie.
- Invincible (2021): After pursuing the Flaxans to their homeworld, Omni-Man delivers a chilling Pre-Mortem One-Liner before ravaging their planet: "You don't seem to understand...Earth isn't yours to conquer." On the one hand, it sounds like something you might expect The Cape to say to evil alien invaders. However, Omni-Man is also an example of Beware the Superman, and the line can thus be read in another way: Earth isn't the Flaxans to conquer because the Viltrumites have already staked their claim over it.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: At the recruiting booth in "Reflections", Mariner encourages passersby to join Starfleet to "experience Warp 10 excitement!" and "discover the undiscovered country!" Appealing-sounding slogans, based on famous/notorious references to Star Trek's history - but travelling at Warp 10 evolves people into salamanders, and the undiscovered country is a Shakespearian metaphor for death (although Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country used it to mean the future).
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023): In "Check Yourself", the supercomputer LOS-307 introduces themself as a non-binary operating system, which doubly refers to their gender identity and how they compute information.
Real Life
- During the 18th century Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland, noblemen supposedly loyal to the English crown but secretly on the side of the rebels had to tread a very fine line, or risk having their wealth confiscated. Since in those days the word of a nobleman was almost sacred, and breaking it meant great loss of face, a common test of loyalty was to propose a toast to the king. This was in effect swearing loyalty to the crown, and many Scots nobles would have found this difficult or impossible to do.
The way they got around was that in his own home, a noble with Jacobite sympathies could join in and even propose loyal toasts to the king by using special cups with the name "Charles Edward Stuart", or a shortened version thereof at the bottom, which would also be supplied to any other rebels around the table, but not the English visitors. So you could raise your cup and say: "To the king!" while looking straight at the name of the Jacobite Pretender. A variation was to have a glass of water on the table positioned so that the toasting glass passed directly above it, thereby toasting "the king across the water". - Prussian Field Marshal Blücher, co-victor of the Battle of Waterloo, once bet other guests at a social function that he was able to kiss his own head. He then proceeded to kiss his chief of staff, General Gneisenau.
- Is PetSmart where you learn to pet intelligently or a mart where pets can buy things?
- The image of a blue-and-yellow-striped tiger became this in World War II Sweden, although less to conceal a message than to make it more memorable — the phrase "En Svensk Tiger" can mean either "A Swedish Tiger" or "A Swede Keeps Silent", so a tiger in the colours of Sweden was used in loose-lips-sink-ships campaigns.
- There is a Procrastinator's Club of America, established in 1956 and based in Philadelphia. Their motto is 'Behind you all the way'.
- The phrase "Deep Blue Sea". Does it mean a sea that's deep blue in color? Or a sea that's deep and blue? Typically, it's both.
- This was an uncomfortably frequent practice in communist countries, to the point where entire generations in certain stratas of society would learn how to discuss thing without mentioning them outright, in case the other person or someone else listening would turn out to be a snitch for the Secret Police. Loaded sentences were frequent, and people could understand each other from even half-a-word, having lived through the same things they then couldn't talk about. Mercifully, with the fall of communism across most of the world in the laste '80s, this practice had largely disappeared, though there are no doubt other, similarly authoritarian systems where it remains.