Homonyms

Homonym

In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings (in other words, are both homographs and homophones),^[1]homonymy. Examples of pairs of homonyms are stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person), and left (opposite of right) and left (past tense of leave). usually as a result of the two words having different origins. The state of being a homonym is called

In a looser non-technical sense, the term “homonym” can be used to refer to words that share the same spelling irrespective of pronunciation, or share the same pronunciation irrespective of spelling – in other words, they are homographs or homophones.^[1] In this sense, pairs such as row (propel with oars) and row read (peruse) and reed (waterside plant), would also be homonyms. (argument), and A distinction may be made between “true” homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal).^[2][3]