You searched for: “homonym”
homonym (s) (noun), homonyms (pl)
1. A word which is identical with another one in pronunciation, but differing from it in spelling and meaning: Some examples of homonyms are fair and fare, read and reed.

A homonym is also called a homophone and a homograph.
2. A word identical with another in spelling and pronunciation, but differing from it in origin and meaning: Two examples of homonyms which are spelled the same are butter, the food, and butter, one who butts.
3. The same name or word used to denote different things: The words bare, bear and bye, bye; buy, buy are examples of homonyms, as indicated in the cartoons below.

A word having the same pronunciation as another one but with different meanings.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Any of two or more words with the same pronunciations but different in spellings and meanings.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

This entry is located in the following units: homo-, hom- + (page 5) -onym, -onymy, -onymic, -onymically, -onymous, -onymously, -nym (page 6)
homonym, homophone, homograph, heteronym
homonym (HAHM uh nim", HOH muh nim") (noun)
A word which is identical with another one in pronunciation, but differing from it in spelling and meaning: The word pairs "fair, fare" and "read, reed" are each an example of a homonym.
homophone (HAHM uh fohn", HOH muh fohn") (noun)
A word with the "same sound" as another one, is etymologically more precise and is less ambiguous in meaning than the reference "homonym": The words "him" and "hymn" are examples of homophones.
homograph (HAHM uh grahf, HOH muh graf") (noun)
A word that is identical with another one in spelling, but is different from it in origin and meaning, and sometimes in pronunciation: The words "bass" referring to a fish, and "bass" referring to the quality of the male voice, are examples of homographs.
heteronym (HET uhr uh nim") (noun)
A word with an identical spelling as another one but with different pronunciations and meanings: The word "row" is an example of a heteronym; such as, "row" meaning objects in a line and "row" meaning a quarrel or fight.

Whenever Laura is stumped about a definition for a confusing-word group, she checks the online dictionary because it is precise and clear; for example, homonym and homophone refer to words that have similar definitions, but the term homophone is more precise.

Two other words are homograph and heteronym which include spellings that may be the same; however, the definitions are very different.

This entry is located in the following units: Confusing Words Clarified: Group H; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 4) homo-, hom- + (page 5)
Word Entries at Get Words: “homonym”
homonym, homonyms
Words that have the same pronunciations as other words, but which have different meanings and spellings. (2)
This entry is located in the following unit: Word a Day Revisited Index of Cartoons Illustrating the Meanings of Words (page 43)