definition homonymy , homophones, homographs

Homonyms

Homonyms, or multiple meaning words, are words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. For example, bear.

• A bear (the animal) can bear (tolerate) very cold temperatures.


• The driver turned left (opposite of right) and left (departed from) the main road.

Homophones, also known as sound-alike words, are words that are pronounced identically although they have different meanings and often have different spellings as well. These words are a very common source of confusion when writing. Common examples of sets of homophones include: to, too, and two; they're and their; bee and be; sun and son; which and witch; and plain and plane. VocabularySpellingCity is a particularly useful tool for learning to correctly use and spell the soundalike words.

Homographs

Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and are often pronounced differently as well. Some examples of homographs are:

• bass as in fish vs bass as in music


• bow as in arrow vs bow as in bending or taking a bow at the end of a performance


• close as in next to vs close as in shut the door


• desert as in dry climate vs desert as in leaving alone.

Currently, VocabularySpellingCity cannot distinguish between homographs, as we are unable to have two pronounciations for the exact same word. We are looking for possibilities in the future.