Semantics: Homophones and Homonyms

HOMOPHONES AND HOMONYMS

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning.

Meat/meet	Flour/flower	Right/write /wright	Pail/pale
To/too/two	Bare/bear	Be/bee	aye/Eye/I
Buy/bye/by	Here/hear	Rain/reign	Plain/plane
Knew/new	Principal/principle	Rest/wrest	stationary/stationery
Root/route	Which/ witch	Steal/steel/still	Sale/sail
Mask/ masque	Lessen/lesson	Mail/male	Flea/flee
Foreword/forward	Forth/ fourth	Farther/father	Die/dye
Fair/ fare	Sole/soul	Tale/tail	Waist/waste
Weather/ whether	Wood/would	Waive/wave	There, their, they're
Sweet/suite	Some/sum	Son/ sun	Seas/ sees/ seize
Saw/ soar/sore	Sea/ see	Born/ borne	Peace/piece
Dear/deer	Where/wear	Cue/queue	Weight/wait
Knot/not	Knight/night

A homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. For examples:

Bank (of a river) – bank (financial institution)

Bat (flying creature) – bat (used in sports)

Mole (on skin) – mole (small animal)

Pupil (at school) – pupil (in the eye)

Race (contest of speed) – race (ethnic group)

Ball (as a round object used in game) - ball (as a gathering of people for dancing)

Bear (to tolerate)- bear (animal)

· Homographs (literally "same writing") are usually defined as words that share the same spelling, regardless of how they are pronounced. If they are pronounced the same then they are also homophones (and homonyms) – for example, bark (the sound of a dog) and bark (the skin of a tree). If they are pronounced differently, then they are also heteronyms – for example, bow (the front of a ship) and bow (a ranged weapon).

· Homophones (literally "same sound") are usually defined as words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of how they are spelled. If they are spelled the same then they are also homographs (and homonyms); if they are spelled differently, then they are also heterographs (literally "different writing"). Homographic examples include rose (flower) and rose (past tense of rise). Heterographic examples include to, too, two, and there, their, they’re.

· Heteronyms (literally "different name") are the subset of homographs (words that share the same spelling) that have different pronunciations (and meanings). Such words include desert (to abandon) and desert (arid region); row (to argue or an argument) and row (as in to row a boat or a row of seats - a pair of homophones). Heteronyms are also sometimes called heterophones (literally "different sound").

· Polysemes are words with the same spelling and distinct but related meanings. The distinction between polysemy and homonymy is often subtle and subjective, and not all sources consider polysemous words to be homonyms. Words such as mouth, meaning either the orifice on one's face, or the opening of a cave or river, are polysemous and may or may not be considered homonyms.

· Capitonyms are words that share the same spelling but have different meanings when capitalized (and may or may not have different pronunciations). Such words include polish (to make shiny) and Polish (from Poland); march (organized, uniformed, steady and rhythmic walking forward) and March (the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar). However, both polish and march at the beginning of sentences still need to be capitalized.

Term	Meaning	Spelling	Pronunciation
Homonym	Different	Same	Same
Homograph	Different	Same	Same or different
Homophone	Different	Same or different	Same
Heteronym	Different	Same	Different
Heterograph	Different	Different	Same
Polysemy	Different but related	Same	Same or different
Capitonym	Different when capitalized	Same except for capitalization	Same or different