homophone
noun
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What are homonyms, homophones, and homographs?
Homonym can be troublesome because it may refer to three distinct classes of words. Homonyms may be words with identical pronunciations but different spellings and meanings, such as to, too, and two. Or they may be words with both identical pronunciations and identical spellings but different meanings, such as quail (the bird) and quail (to cringe). Finally, they may be words that are spelled alike but are different in pronunciation and meaning, such as the bow of a ship and bow that shoots arrows. The first and second types are sometimes called homophones, and the second and third types are sometimes called homographs—which makes naming the second type a bit confusing. Some language scholars prefer to limit homonym to the third type.
Examples of homophone in a Sentence
Kris Holt, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2024
The next step involved identifying the special symbols (homophones) and the overall structure of the cipher.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 8 Feb. 2023
Except, in the codex, many of these homophones were based on Nahuatl words, requiring knowledge of the language to decipher them.
—Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2023
Now, here’s a smattering of homophones more crowded than triplets: oar/o’er/or/ore (4), air/ere/err/heir (4), and ewes/u’s/use/yews/youse (5).
—Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Sep. 2023
However, ocean is not one of the homophones (and for good reason: the word does not have any homophones).
—Deb Amlen, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2023
Every word in this sentence is a homophone, a word that sounds like another word but is spelled differently.
—Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 July 2023
That’s where the puzzle element could come in: Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay — palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words — rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards.
—Wyna Liu, New York Times, 26 June 2023
In Mandarin, four is a homophone with death.
—cleveland, 15 Jan. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'homophone.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near homophone
Cite this Entry
“Homophone.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homophone. Accessed 3 Jun. 2024.
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homophone
noun
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