Homonyms (in Greek language ''homoios'' = identical and ''onoma'' = name) are words that have the same phonetic or orthographic form but unrelated meaning. If they are the same only in one way, they are called homophones and homographs respectively. In derivation, ''homonym'' means the same name, ''homophone'' means the same sound, and ''homograph'' means the same letters. There is a fish called a ''fluke'', a flatworm called a ''fluke'', a part of a whale called a ''fluke'' and a stroke of luck called a ''fluke'', but these are four separate lexemes with separate etymology that all happen to share one form. Similarly, a river ''bank'', a savings ''bank'', and a ''bank'' of switches share only a common spelling and pronunciation, but not meaning. The first homonyms that one learns in English are probably ''to'', ''too'', and ''two'' (homophones), but the sentence "Too much to do in two days" would confuse no one. (Note, however, when read with a natural rhythm, ''to'' has a schwa and is not homophonous with ''too'' or ''two''.) ''There'', ''their'', and ''they're'' are familar examples as well. ''Lead'' the metal and ''lead'' the verb, or ''moped'' the motorized bicycle and ''moped'' the past tense of ''mope'' are examples of homographs; they are not homophones, because they are pronounced differently. The National Puzzlers' League calls homographs Heteronym. This term is particularly appropriate where the homograph, such as ''cleave'', has two opposite meanings, "to split" and "to cling close". In some accents, various sounds have phonemic differentiation 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 are ''pin'' and ''pen'' in many Southern American English, and ''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. Similarly, ''affect'' and ''effect'' are distinguished in some careful or cultivated speech. Homograph disambiguation is critically important in speech synthesis, but otherwise, homonyms are mostly curiosities, of limited linguistic interest compared to the strong functional roles of antonyms and synonyms. See pun, however. See also polysemy for a closely related idea. == Quotation == :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" == See also == * Initial-stress-derived noun * List of commonly confused homonyms * List of English homographs * Long List of homophones * -onym * Polysemy * Pun * Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den == External links == *[http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html Alan Cooper's Homonym List ] *[http://www.kwiznet.com/p/takeQuiz.php?ChapterID=1905&CurriculumID=14 Quiz to learn homonyms] *[http://www.kwiznet.com/p/takeQuiz.php?ChapterID=2027&CurriculumID=14 Quiz Using Picture Clues] Semantics Types of words simple:Homophone
==Debate over the correct name== The debate over the correct name: Homonyms vs Homophones: http://www.go2net.com/useless/useless/homonym.html -- User:Ellmist Monday, November 25th, 2002 The discussion is not pointless at all. And the definitions as of homonymes, -phones, and -graphes as they are now seem obscure and unreasonable to me. I suggest the following classification: Homonymes: Words with different meaning but identical in writing or pronunciation; Homophones: Words which are pronounced the same; Homographs: Words which are written the same. =="know" and "now"== Should we really have "know" and "now" on this list? They aren't pronounced the same way anyway. In my article at Misspelling I have them distinguished in a section for pairs of words that are clearly pronounced differently yet among which one is often written for the other, i.e. "through" and "thorough" (so we can get people to stop writing "He did a very through job") or "corps" and "corpse". Should we move them from this list? User:12.240.227.239 02:34, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC) ==Where should I factor in the following observation?== I've seen a number of instances where non-native speakers (particularly Hindi-speaking people) use the spelling "their" for "there". There may be similar observations of L1 influence (native tongue influence) coupling with confusion with homophones that are not homographs. Where do we mention these (if at all this is verifiable)? -- User:Sundar 06:26, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC) This is hardly limited to non-native speakers. Correct spelling of homophones is something that has to be taught, and not everyone learns it well. One sees it distressingly often in people who have been speaking English all their lives. User:Csernica 19:58, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Reduced "to" == It is too dialectical. Nohat, it may be reduced when ''you'' speak naturally, but it sure isn't when ''I'' speak naturally. User:Csernica 19:55, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Homonym:
Homonym
Homonym
Homonyms
Homonymy
Homonym
Homonyms (in Greek language ''homoios'' = identical and ''onoma'' = name) are words that have the same phonetic or orthographic form but unrelated meaning. If they are the same only in one way, they are called homophones and homographs respectively. In derivation, ''homonym'' means the same name, ''homophone'' means the same sound, and ''homograph'' means the same letters. There is a fish called a ''fluke'', a flatworm called a ''fluke'', a part of a whale called a ''fluke'' and a stroke of luck called a ''fluke'', but these are four separate lexemes with separate etymology that all happen to share one form. Similarly, a river ''bank'', a savings ''bank'', and a ''bank'' of switches share only a common spelling and pronunciation, but not meaning. The first homonyms that one learns in English are probably ''to'', ''too'', and ''two'' (homophones), but the sentence "Too much to do in two days" would confuse no one. (Note, however, when read with a natural rhythm, ''to'' has a schwa and is not homophonous with ''too'' or ''two''.) ''There'', ''their'', and ''they're'' are familar examples as well. ''Lead'' the metal and ''lead'' the verb, or ''moped'' the motorized bicycle and ''moped'' the past tense of ''mope'' are examples of homographs; they are not homophones, because they are pronounced differently. The National Puzzlers' League calls homographs Heteronym. This term is particularly appropriate where the homograph, such as ''cleave'', has two opposite meanings, "to split" and "to cling close". In some accents, various sounds have phonemic differentiation 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 are ''pin'' and ''pen'' in many Southern American English, and ''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. Similarly, ''affect'' and ''effect'' are distinguished in some careful or cultivated speech. Homograph disambiguation is critically important in speech synthesis, but otherwise, homonyms are mostly curiosities, of limited linguistic interest compared to the strong functional roles of antonyms and synonyms. See pun, however. See also polysemy for a closely related idea. == Quotation == :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" == See also == * Initial-stress-derived noun * List of commonly confused homonyms * List of English homographs * Long List of homophones * -onym * Polysemy * Pun * Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den == External links == *[http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html Alan Cooper's Homonym List ] *[http://www.kwiznet.com/p/takeQuiz.php?ChapterID=1905&CurriculumID=14 Quiz to learn homonyms] *[http://www.kwiznet.com/p/takeQuiz.php?ChapterID=2027&CurriculumID=14 Quiz Using Picture Clues] Semantics Types of words simple:Homophone
Homonym
==Debate over the correct name== The debate over the correct name: Homonyms vs Homophones: http://www.go2net.com/useless/useless/homonym.html -- User:Ellmist Monday, November 25th, 2002 The discussion is not pointless at all. And the definitions as of homonymes, -phones, and -graphes as they are now seem obscure and unreasonable to me. I suggest the following classification: Homonymes: Words with different meaning but identical in writing or pronunciation; Homophones: Words which are pronounced the same; Homographs: Words which are written the same. =="know" and "now"== Should we really have "know" and "now" on this list? They aren't pronounced the same way anyway. In my article at Misspelling I have them distinguished in a section for pairs of words that are clearly pronounced differently yet among which one is often written for the other, i.e. "through" and "thorough" (so we can get people to stop writing "He did a very through job") or "corps" and "corpse". Should we move them from this list? User:12.240.227.239 02:34, 4 Sep 2003 (UTC) ==Where should I factor in the following observation?== I've seen a number of instances where non-native speakers (particularly Hindi-speaking people) use the spelling "their" for "there". There may be similar observations of L1 influence (native tongue influence) coupling with confusion with homophones that are not homographs. Where do we mention these (if at all this is verifiable)? -- User:Sundar 06:26, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC) This is hardly limited to non-native speakers. Correct spelling of homophones is something that has to be taught, and not everyone learns it well. One sees it distressingly often in people who have been speaking English all their lives. User:Csernica 19:58, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Reduced "to" == It is too dialectical. Nohat, it may be reduced when ''you'' speak naturally, but it sure isn't when ''I'' speak naturally. User:Csernica 19:55, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
H
HA | HB | HC | HD | HE | HF | HG | HI | HJ | HK | HL | HM | HN | HO | HP | HR | HS | HT | HU | HW | HX | HY | HZ |Words begining with Homonym:
Homonym
Homonym
Homonyms
Homonymy
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