homograph

See also: Homograph

English

WOTD – 14 October 2007

Etymology

From homo- +‎ -graph.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒməɡɹɑːf/, /ˈhəʊməɡɹæf/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːməɡɹæf/, /ˈhoʊməɡɹæf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  ,

  Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

Examples
bear (“mammal”) and bear (“to support”)

homograph (plural homographs)

1. A word that is spelled the same as another word, usually having a different etymology.

Usage notes

Homographs are a kind of homonym in the loose sense of that term, i.e. a word that is either a homophone (same sound) or a homograph (same spelling). (The strict sense of homonym is a word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word.) Specifically, homographs must have the same spelling, though they usually have different meanings and may be pronounced differently.

• The verb bear (“to carry”) and the noun bear (“large omnivorous mammal”) are homographs with the same pronunciation and different etymological origins.
• The verb alternate (“to go back and forth”) and the adjective alternate (“following by turns”) are homographs with different pronunciations but close etymological origins. Such homographs are also heteronyms.
• The verb meet (“to encounter”) and the noun meat (“food”) are not homographs since they have different spellings.

Related terms

• homœograph
• homographic
• homography

Translations

word with the same spelling but different meaning

• Catalan: homògraf (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 同音異義詞, 同音异义词 (tóngyīn yìyì), 同音詞 (zh), 同音词 (zh) (tóngyīncí), 多音字 (zh) (duōyīnzì) (of Chinese characters), 同形異義字, 同形异义字 (tóngxíngyìyìzì)

• Czech: homograf m
• Finnish: homografi
• French: homographe (fr) m
• German: Homograph (de) m
• Greek: ομοιογράφος m (omoiográfos)
• Hebrew: הומוגרף‎ (he) m (homográf)
• Hungarian: homográf, azonos alakú, de eltérő jelentésű (és gyakran eltérő kiejtésű) szó

• Irish: homagraf m
• Japanese: 同音異義語 (ja) (dōon igigo), 同音語 (dōongo)
• Khmer: កល្បលេខន៍ (kal lekh)
• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji: hevnivîs (ku)

• Polish: homograf m
• Portuguese: homógrafo (pt) m
• Russian: омо́граф (ru) m (omógraf), омо́ним (ru) m (omónim)
• Serbo-Croatian: homograf (sh) m, istopisnica (sh) f
• Spanish: homógrafo (es) m
• Swedish: homograf (sv) c
• Thai: คำพ้องรูป (th) (kam-pɔ́ɔng-rûup)
• Turkish: eş sesli (tr)

See also

An Euler diagram showing the relationship between these -nyms.

Different Meanings

nym	Sound	Spelling	Category
homonym	same	same
heteronym	different	same	(cat)
homograph	not specified	same
homophone	same	different	(cat)
heterophone	different	different
synonym

• polyphone

Further reading

• homograph on Wikipedia.Wikipedia