Homonym
For specialised use of homonym in scientific nomenclature, see Homonym (botany) and Homonym (zoology).The definitions given here are based on authoritative dictionary definitions, but in practice there is a great deal of confusion about the precise meaning of these words, and a variety of other interpretations may be encountered.A
homonym is a word that has the same
pronunciation and
spelling as another word, but a different meaning.
A
homograph is a word that has the same
spelling as another word, but a different meaning.
A
homophone is a word that has the same
pronunciation as another word, but a different meaning.
These can cause ambiguity in reading text or in hearing speech.
A homonym is a word that is spelled
and pronounced the same as another but with a different meaning – such as
mean (verb – to intend) and
mean (noun & adjective – average) – such words are both homophones
and homographs See
OED and
ChambersSome sources state that homonym meanings must be
unrelated (rather than just different), or that the words must have a different origin. Thus
right (correct) and
right (opposed to left) would not be homonyms, whereas
mean (unkind),
mean (intend), and
mean (average) would be.
Heteronyms (also sometimes called
heterophones) are words that are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and meanings (in other words, they are homographs which differ in pronunciation or, technically, homographs which are not homophones). For example, the homographs
desert (abandon) and
desert (arid region) are heteronyms (pronounced differently), but
mean (intend) and
mean (average) are not (Ie. they are pronounced the same, or are homonyms).
Capitonyms are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings when capitalised (and may or may not have different pronunciations) – for example,
polish (to make shiny) and
Polish (from Poland).
In derivation,
homonym means "same name",
homophone means "same sound",
homograph means "same writing",
heteronym (somewhat confusingly) means "different name", and
heterophone means "different sound".
Significant variant interpretations include:
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary [
1] defines a homonym as "a word with the same sound
and spelling as another, but with a different meaning" (italics added).
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary [
2] also says that a homonym is "one of two or more words spelled
and pronounced alike but different in meaning" (italics added), but appears to also give homonym as a synonym for either homophone or homograph.
Cambridge Dictionary of American English [
3] defines homonym as "a word that is spelled the same as another word but that does not have the same meaning" (the same as what above is called a homograph).
*The entry for homonym in
The Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th Edition) states that homographs are "words spelt but
not sounded alike", and homophones are "words alike
only in sound [i.e. not alike in spelling]" (italics and comment added).
*The
Encarta dictionary [
4] defines heteronym as "each of two or more words that are spelled the same, but differ in meaning and
often in pronunciation" (italics added). The "Fun with Words" website [
5] says that a heteronym is "One of two (or more) words that have the same spelling, but different meaning, and
sometimes different pronunciation too" (in other words, what is called a homograph above).
Homonym has a specialised meaning in scientific nomenclature, see
See also below.
Homograph is sometimes used in typography as a synonym for
homoglyph, and
heteronym has a specialised meaning in poetry – see
Heteronym (literature).
A further example of a homonym which is both a homophone and a homograph is
fluke.
Fluke can mean-
*A fish, and a
flatworm.
*The end parts of an
anchor.
*The fins on a
whale's tail.
*A stroke of
luck.All four are separate
lexemes with separate
etymologies, but share the one form,
fluke. Similarly, a river
bank, a savings
bank, and a
bank of switches share only a common spelling and pronunciation, but not meaning.
The first homophones that one learns in English are probably the homophones
to,
too, and
two, but the sentence "Too much to do in two days" would confuse no one. (Note, however, when read with a natural rhythm in many dialects,
to has a
schwa and is not homophonous with
too or
two.)
There,
their, and
they're are familiar examples, as are
lead (the metal) and
led (the verb
past participle).
Moped (the motorized bicycle) and
moped (the past tense of
mope) are examples of homographs; they are not homophones, because they are pronounced differently.
In some accents, various sounds have
merged in that they are no longer distinctive, and thus words that differ only by those sounds in an accent that maintains the distinction (a
minimal pair) are homophonous in the accent with the merger. Some examples from
English are:-
pin and
pen in many
southern American accents.
merry,
marry, and
Mary in many western American accents.:The pairs
do,
due and
forward,
foreword are homophonous in most American accents but not in most British accents.:The pairs
talk,
torque, and
court,
caught are distinguished in
rhotic accents such as
Scottish English and most dialects of American English, but are homophones in many non-rhotic accents such as British
Received Pronunciation.
Homophones are sometimes used in message encryption to increase the difficulty in cracking the decryption code. In this case the clear text is altered prior to being encrypted and the decrypting party substitutes the homophones for their true meaning after decrypting the message
Many
puns rely on homophones for their humor.
Homograph disambiguation is critically important in
speech synthesis,
natural language processing and other fields. See also
polysemy for a closely related idea.
:His death, which happen'd in his berth,:At forty-odd befell::They went and told the sexton, and:The sexton toll'd the bell:::
Thomas Hood, "Faithless Sally Brown"
*
Initial-stress-derived noun*
List of commonly confused homonyms*
List of English homographs*
Homograph spoofing attack*
Long List of homophones*
-onym*
Polysemy*
Pun*
Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den*
Homonym (botany)*
Homonym (zoology)*
Wordplay*
List of homonymous puns*
Information on teaching homophones including free ebook and teaching tips
*
Alan Cooper's Homonym List *
Quiz to learn homonyms *
Quiz Using Picture Clues*
Homophone Translator
