homophone

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From French homophone.

PronunciationEdit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈhɒməfəʊ̯n/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈhɔməfoʊ̯n/, /ˈhɑməfoʊ̯n/
  • (file)

NounEdit

Examples (English words)

homophone (plural homophones)

  1. (semantics) A word which is pronounced the same as another word but differs in spelling or meaning or origin.
  2. A letter or group of letters which are pronounced the same as another letter or group of letters.

Usage notesEdit

A homophone is a type of homonym in the loose sense of that term (a word which sounds or is spelled the same as another). (The strict sense of homonym is a word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word.) A homograph is a word with the same spelling as another but a completely unrelated meaning. Homographs are not necessarily homophones. See homonym § Usage notes for examples.

Related termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

 
An Euler diagram showing the relationship between these -nyms.
Nyms (with category [cat] if any)
nym Sound Spelling Meaning phone/graph
homonym same same different homophone & homograph
heteronym (cat) different same different homograph
heterograph same different different homophone (cat)
heterophone different same same homograph
synonym different different same
alternative spelling same different same homophone
identical same same same not applicable
distinct different different different

Further readingEdit

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Ancient Greek ὁμόφωνος (homóphōnos, speaking the same language, making the same sound, in agreement, in unison), from ὁμός (homós, same) +‎ -φωνος (-phōnos, with respect to language or sound), a suffix derived from φωνή (phōnḗ, sound, language), in the linguistic sense coined by French philologist Jean-François Champollion in 1822 (for the adjective) and 1824 (for the noun).

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

homophone (plural homophones)

  1. homophonous

NounEdit

homophone m (plural homophones)

  1. (semantics) homophone

See alsoEdit

Further readingEdit