Homonym

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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. Example: The word stalk, meaning either part of a plant or to follow (someone) around.

A homograph is a word that has the same spelling as another word, but a different meaning. Example: The spelling to cleave may denote to adhere to or to divide or split. Occasionally, one can also encounter homographs that are not homonyms (i.e. the spelling is the same, but the prounounciation is different for each meaning). Such words include "bow" (front part of a ship) which in Received Pronounication has a slightly more open and less rounded vowel than "bow" (bow tie, bow and arrow). Another example is Berkeley (the name of the university is pronounced differently than the name of the bishop).

A homophone is a word that has the same pronunciation as another word, but whose meaning and/or spelling are different, . Example: All of to, too, and two, or there, their, and they’re.

These can cause ambiguity in reading text or in hearing speech.

1 Further details as to the definitions
2 Further examples
3 Heterologue
4 Quote
5 External links

[edit] Further details as to the definitions

Homographs are so termed in Oxford English Dictionary and Chambers as being spelled and pronounced the same as another but with a different meaning – such as mean (verb – to intend) and mean (noun & adjective – average).

Some 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).

[edit] Further examples

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.