
[Latin homōnymum, from Greek homōnumon, from neuter of homōnumos, homonymous. See homonymous.]
homonymic hom'o·nym'ic adj.homonym, a word that is identical in form with another word, either in sound (as a homophone) or in spelling (as a homograph), or in both, but differs from it in meaning: days/daze, or lead (guide)/lead (metal), or pitch (throw)/pitch (tar). Identity of form between two or more words is known as homonymy.
Adjective: homonymic.
Two words that sound alike and may even be spelled alike but have different meanings, such as trunk (meaning part of an elephant) and trunk (meaning a storage chest). Often used with the same meaning as homophone.
One of two or more words which are identical in pronunciation and spelling, but different in meaning, as the noun bear and the verb bear.
The homonym for bore is boar.
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In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings.[1] Thus homonyms are simultaneously homographs (words that share the same spelling, irrespective of their pronunciation) and homophones (words that share the same pronunciation, irrespective of their spelling). The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. Examples of homonyms are the pair stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person) and the pair left (past tense of leave) and left (opposite of right). A distinction is sometimes made between "true" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal).[2][3]
In non-technical contexts, the term "homonym" may be used (somewhat confusingly) to refer to words that are either homographs or homophones.[1] In this looser sense, the words row (propel with oars) and row (argument) are considered homonyms, as are the words read (peruse) and reed (waterside plant).
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The word homonym comes from the Greek ὁμώνυμος (homonumos), meaning "having the same name",[4] which is the conjunction of ὁμός (homos), meaning "common, same"[5] and ὄνομα (onoma) meaning "name".[6] Thus, it refers to two or more distinct concepts sharing the "same name" or signifier. Note: for the h sound, see rough breathing and smooth breathing.
| 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 |
| Polyseme | Different but related | Same | Same or different |
| Capitonym | Different when capitalized |
Same except for capitalization |
Same or different |
Several similar linguistic concepts are related to homonymy. These include:
A further example of a homonym, which is both a homophone and a homograph, is fluke. Fluke can mean:
All four are separate lexemes with separate etymologies, but share the one form, fluke.*[7]
Similarly, a river bank, a savings bank, a bank of switches, and a bank shot in pool share a common spelling and pronunciation, but differ in meaning.
The words bow and bough are interesting because there are two meanings associated with a single pronunciation and spelling (the weapon and the knot); there are two meanings with two different pronunciations (the knot and the act of bending at the waist), and there are two distinct meanings sharing the same sound but different spellings (bow, the act of bending at the waist, and bough, the branch of a tree). In addition, it has several related but distinct meanings – a bent line is sometimes called a 'bowed' line, reflecting its similarity to the weapon. Thus, even according to the most restrictive definitions, various pairs of sounds and meanings of bow and bough are homonyms, homographs, homophones, heterophones, heterographs, and are polysemous.
Homonymy can lead to communicative conflicts and thus trigger lexical (onomasiological) change.[8] This is known as homonymic conflict.
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - enslydende ord, homonym
Nederlands (Dutch)
homoniem, gelijkklinkend woord, naamgenoot
Français (French)
n. - homonyme
Deutsch (German)
n. - Homonym (gleichlautendes Wort mit anderer Bedeutung), Namensvetter
Português (Portuguese)
n. - homônimo (m)
Español (Spanish)
n. - homónimo
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - homonymi (språkv.)
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
同音异义字, 同名异物
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 同音異義字, 同名異物
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 동음이의어, 동명 이인
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) اللفظه المتجانسه, المجانسه, جناسا تاما إحدى لفظتين متماثلتين في الرسم والإملاء واللفظ مختلفتين في المعنى, السمي الذي يحمل نفس الاسم الذي يحمله غيره
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מילה הנראית ונהגית כמילה אחרת אך נבדלת ממנה במשמעותה, הומונים, צימוד, אדם שנקרא בשמו של אדם אחר
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