Homonym

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For specialised use of homonym in scientific nomenclature, see Homonym (botany) and Homonym (zoology).

A homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling or pronunciation (or both) but have different meanings. Examples are stalk (which can mean either part of a plant or to follow (someone) around), and the trio of words to, too and two.

The word "homonym" comes from the conjunction of the Greek prefix homo- (meaning same) and suffix -onym (meaning name). Thus, it refers to two or more distinct words sharing the "same name".

Some sources state that homonym meanings must be unrelated (rather than just different), or that the words must have a different origin. Thus right (correct) and right (opposed to left) would be polysemous (see below) and not be homonyms. Other variant definitions are explained below.

1 Variants and sub-types
2 Confusion and contradiction about terminology
3 Other uses
4 Further examples
5 External links

[edit] Variants and sub-types

Several similar linguistic concepts are related to homonymy, and some are considered sub-types of homonyms. The variety of terms stems in part from the fact that the term homonym is ambiguous, as there are a number of ways two meanings can share the 'same name'. Variants include:

Homography. A homograph is a homonym in which two or more meanings share the same spelling. Homographs may or may not share the same pronunciation. Such words include homophones like bark (the sound of a dog or the skin of a tree), and heteronyms like Berkeley (the name of the university, which is pronounced differently from the name of the school's namesake bishop.)

Homophony. A homophone is a homonym in which two or more meanings share the same pronunciation. Homophones may or may not share the same spelling. Such words include to, too, and two and there, their, and they’re, but also bow (a type of knot) and bow (a weapon used to propel an arrow).

Heteronymy. A heteronym is a homonym with a single spelling but different meanings and pronunciations. Such words include desert (abandon) and desert (arid region), because they are pronounced differently. These are also sometimes called heterophones. They are homographs which differ in pronunciation or, technically, homographs which are not homophones.

Polysemy. A polyseme is a single word with two 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 or river, are polysemous and may or may not be considered homonyms.

Capitonymy. Capitonyms are homonyms that share spelling but have different meanings when capitalized (and may or may not have different pronunciations). Such words include polish (to make shiny) and Polish (from Poland).

Heterologues. A heterologue is a homonym comprised of words from different languages that have same spelling, but different meanings.

In derivation, homograph means "same writing", homophone means "same sound", heteronym (somewhat confusingly) means "different name", and heterophone means "different sound".

[edit] Confusion and contradiction about terminology

There is considerable confusion and contradiction in published sources about the distinction between homonyms, homographs, homophones and heteronyms. Significant variant interpretations include:

Chambers 21st Century Dictionary [1] defines a homonym as "a word with the same sound and spelling as another, but with a different meaning" (italics added). Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary [2] also says that a homonym is "one of two or more words spelled and pronounced alike but different in meaning" (italics added), but appears to also give homonym as a synonym for either homophone or homograph.

Cambridge Dictionary of American English [3] defines homonym as "a word that is spelled the same as another word but that does not have the same meaning" (the same as what above is called a homograph).

The entry for homonym in The Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th Edition) states that homographs are "words spelt but not sounded alike", and homophones are "words alike only in sound [i.e. not alike in spelling]" (italics and comment added).

Homographs are defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as words that are spelled and pronounced the same as another but with a different meaning, thus excluding pairs such as desert (abandon) and desert (arid region).

The Encarta dictionary [4] defines heteronym as "each of two or more words that are spelled the same, but differ in meaning and often in pronunciation" (italics added).

The "Fun with Words" website [5] says that a heteronym is "One of two (or more) words that have the same spelling, but different meaning, and sometimes different pronunciation too" (in other words, what is called a homograph above).

[edit] Other uses

Homonym has a specialised meaning in scientific nomenclature; see Homonym (botany) and Homonym (zoology). Homograph is sometimes used in typography as a synonym for homoglyph, and heteronym has a specialised meaning in poetry – see Heteronym (literature).

[edit] Further examples

A further example of a homonym which is both a homophone and a homograph is fluke. Fluke can mean:

A fish, and a flatworm.
The end parts of an anchor.
The fins on a whale's tail.
A stroke of luck.

All four are separate lexemes with separate etymologies, but share the one form, fluke.

The words bow and bough are interesting because there are two meanings associated with a single pronunciation and spelling (the weapon and the knot); there are two meanings with two different pronunciations (the knot and the act of bending at the waist), and there are 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. Thus, even according to the most restrictive definitions, various pairs of sounds and meanings of bow and bough are homonyms, homographs, homophones, heterophones, heterographs, and are polysemous.

Similarly, a river bank, a savings bank, a bank of switches, and a bank shot in pool share only a common spelling and pronunciation, but not meaning.