What are words that have the same spelling but different meanings?

Answer 1

These are called homographs (written the same) and if they

also sound the same (homophones), then they are "true homonyms" such as rose (got up) and rose (the flower).

The classic name for homographs that are not pronounced the same is heteronyms.

Examples of heteronyms:

desert (arid land) - desert (abandon)

number (numeral) - number (more numb)

does (performs) - does (female deer)

Answer 2

The reverse (words spelled the same but with different meanings) would be true homonyms if they sound the same (bat = Baseball or flying mammal), or simply homographs if they have different sounds (lead = being ahead or the heavy element).

Words spelled differently that mean about the same are synonyms.

Answer 3

Words that have the same spelling, and the same pronunciation, but different meanings are called homonyms. Examples are beat (rhythm) and beat (to whip, as eggs). But this term is also (confusingly) used for words that simply have the same sound (pronunciation), such as eight and ate. These are more correctly called homophones (sound alike words).

If they have the same spelling, but different pronunciations, they are homographs. (written the same) such as sow (female pig) and sow (to seed), or the tenses read (pronounced reed) and read (pronounced red). Homographs require a context clue to determine how they are pronounced.

There are a great number of homophones in English.

(see the related question for examples)

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Autoantonyms (contranyms) are words that can have opposite meanings depending on their context (e.g. fast can mean "moving quickly" or "fixed firmly in place

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Homonyms, homophones, and homographs

Think of it like this:

HomoNYM is the same (homo) in name (nym, here meaning spelling).

HomoPHONE sounds the same, as in the word "telephone."

HomoGRAPH means written (graph) the same, such as rose (flower) and rose (went up).

(for more information, see the Related Links below this box)

Answer 4

Some examples of words that have the same spelling but different meanings are "bat" (a flying mammal or a tool used in sports), "bark" (the outer covering of a tree or the sound a dog makes), and "book" (a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction or to reserve a spot).