<P> A mondegreen / ˈmɒndɪɡriːn / is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near - homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning . Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense . American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, writing about how as a girl she had misheard the lyric "...and laid him on the green" in a Scottish ballad as "...and Lady Mondegreen". </P> <P> "Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, and in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002 . Merriam - Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008 . Examples in other languages include those cited by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in the Hebrew song "Háva Nagíla" ("Let's Be Happy"), and in Bollywood films . </P>

What's it called when you change the lyrics of a song