linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, homonyms are words which are

homograph A homograph (from the el, ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also ...

s (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or

homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...

s (

equivocal Equivocal is the grammatical quality of ambiguity due to a term's having multiple meanings. It is the latin translation of the greek adjective "homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling ...

words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, the words ''row'' (propel with oars), ''row'' (a linear arrangement) and ''row'' (an argument) are homonyms because they are homographs (though only the first two are homophones): so are the words ''see'' (vision) and ''sea'' (body of water), because they are homophones (though not homographs). A more restrictive and technical definition requires that homonyms be simultaneously homographs ''and'' homophoneshomonym
''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' at dictionary.com – that is to say they have identical spelling ''and'' pronunciation, but with different meanings. Examples are the pair ''stalk'' (part of a plant) and ''stalk'' (follow/harass a person) and the pair ''left'' (

past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...

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 Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word has a single ...

, which have a shared origin, such as ''mouth'' (of a river) and ''mouth'' (of an animal). The relationship between a set of homonyms is called homonymy, and the associated adjective is homonymous, homonymic, or in latin, equivocal. The adjective "homonymous" can additionally be used wherever two items share the same name, independent of how closely they are or are not related in terms of their meaning or etymology. For example, the name Ōkami is homonymous with the Japanese term for "wolf" (''ōkami'').

Etymology

The word ''homonym'' comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

ὁμώνυμος (''homonymos''), meaning "having the same name", compounded from ὁμός (''homos'') 'common, same, similar' and ὄνομα (''onoma'') 'name'.

Related terms

Several similar linguistic concepts are related to homonymy. These include: *

Homograph A homograph (from the el, ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also ...

s (literally "same writing") are usually defined as words that share the same spelling, regardless of how they are pronounced.Some sources restrict the term "homograph" to words that have the same spelling but ''different'' pronunciations. See, for example
''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems'', p. 215
(Wiley-Blackwell, 1999) and ''The Encyclopædia Britannica (14th Edition)'' (entry for "homograph"). If they are pronounced the same then they are also

s (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). *

Homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...

s (literally "same sound") are usually defined as words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of how they are spelled.Some sources restrict the term "homophone" to words that have the same pronunciation but ''different'' spellings. See, for example
''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems'', p. 202
(Wiley-Blackwell, 1999) and ''The Encyclopædia Britannica (14th Edition)'' (entry for "homograph"). 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''. Due to their similar yet non-identical pronunciation in American English, ''ladder'' and ''latter'' do not qualify as homophones, but rather synophones. * Heteronyms (literally "different name") are the subset of homographs (words that share the same spelling) that have different pronunciations (and meanings).Some sources do not require that heteronyms have different pronunciations. See, for example, the archive
''Encarta'' dictionary entry
(which states that heteronyms "often" differ in pronunciation) and th

(which states that heteronyms "sometimes" have different pronunciations). Such words include ''desert'' (to abandon) and ''desert'' (arid region); ''tear'' (to rip) and ''tear'' (a drop of moisture formed in one eye); ''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 Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word has a single ...

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 A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

, 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'' (make shiny) and ''

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

'' (from Poland); ''march'' (walk in step) and ''

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Marc ...

'' (the third month of the

Year A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

) and the pair: ''reading'' (using a book) and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

(towns in, among other places,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Further examples

A homonym which is both a homophone and a homograph is fluke, meaning: *A fish, and a

flatworm The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegment ...

. *The end parts of an

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

. *The fins on a

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

's tail. *A stroke of

luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...

. These meanings represent at least three

etymologically Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words an ...

separate

lexeme A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken ...

s, but share the one form, fluke.* Note that fluke is also a capitonym, in that Fluke Corporation (commonly referred to as simply "Fluke") is a manufacturer of industrial testing equipment. Similarly, a river bank, a savings bank, a bank of switches, and a bank shot in the game of pool share a common spelling and pronunciation, but differ in meaning. The words bow and bough are examples where there are two meanings associated with a single pronunciation and spelling (the weapon and the knot); two meanings with two different pronunciations (the knot and the act of bending at the waist), and 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. Even according to the most restrictive definitions, various pairs of sounds and meanings of bow, Bow and bough are

homonyms In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition ...

homographs A homograph (from the el, ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also ...

homophones A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...

, heteronyms, heterographs, capitonyms and are

polysemous Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word has a single ...

. *bow – a long stick with horse hair that is used to play certain

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

s such as the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

*bow – to bend forward at the waist in respect (e.g. "bow down") *bow – the front of the ship (e.g. "bow and stern") *bow – a kind of tied ribbon (e.g. bow on a present, a bowtie) *bow – to bend outward at the sides (e.g. a "bow-legged" cowboy) * Bow – a district in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

*bow – a weapon to shoot projectiles with (e.g. a bow and arrow) A lime can refer to a

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

or a

material Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geologi ...

. A mold (mould) can refer to a

fungus A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from th ...

or an industrial cast. The words ''there'', ''their'', and ''they're'' are examples of three words that are of a singular pronunciation, have different spellings and vastly different meanings. These three words are commonly misused (or, alternatively, misspelled). *there – "The bow shot the arrow there," he said as he pointed. *their – "It was their bow and arrow." the Mother said. *they're – They're not going to get to shoot the bow again after puncturing the tire (tyre) on Daddy's car. (

Contraction Contraction may refer to: Linguistics * Contraction (grammar), a shortened word * Poetic contraction, omission of letters for poetic reasons * Elision, omission of sounds ** Syncope (phonology), omission of sounds in a word * Synalepha, merged ...

They In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms: * ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''them'': the accusat ...

and Are.) The words metal and mettle are polysemes and homophones, but not homographs.

Homonyms in historical linguistics

Homonymy can lead to communicative conflicts and thus trigger lexical ( onomasiological) change.On this phenomenon see Williams, Edna R. (1944), ''The Conflict of Homonyms in English'',

ale Studies in English 100 Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to bala ...

New Haven: Yale University Press, Grzega, Joachim (2004), ''Bezeichnungswandel: Wie, Warum, Wozu? Ein Beitrag zur englischen und allgemeinen Onomasiologie'', Heidelberg: Winter, p. 216ff., and Grzega, Joachim (2001d), “Über Homonymenkonflikt als Auslöser von Wortuntergang”, in: Grzega, Joachim (2001c), ''Sprachwissenschaft ohne Fachchinesisch: 7 aktuelle Studien für alle Sprachinteressierten'', Aachen: Shaker, p. 81-98. This is known as ''homonymic conflict''. This leads to a species of

informal fallacy Informal fallacies are a type of incorrect argument in natural language. The source of the error is not just due to the ''form'' of the argument, as is the case for formal fallacies, but can also be due to their ''content'' and ''context''. Falla ...

of thought and argument called by the latin name

equivocation In logic, equivocation ("calling two different things by the same name") is an informal fallacy resulting from the use of a particular word/expression in multiple senses within an argument. It is a type of ambiguity that stems from a phrase havin ...

Etymology

Related terms

Further examples

Homonyms in historical linguistics

See also

Notes

References

Further reading