homonym

See also: Homonym

English

Etymology

From homo- +‎ -onym.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhä-mə-ˌnim/
• IPA^(key): /ˈhō-mə-ˌnim/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

homonym (plural homonyms)

1. (semantics, strict sense) A word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word but has a different meaning.
2. (loosely) A word that sounds or is spelled the same as another word but has a different meaning, technically called a homophone (same sound) or a homograph (same spelling).
3. (taxonomy) A name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another name that belongs to a different taxon.

Usage notes

• Homonyms (in the looser sense) are divided into the two overlapping subcategories homographs and homophones. Examples:
  • die and dye (homophones but not homographs)
  • the parasitic flatworm called a fluke and fluke, part of the tail of a whale (both homophones and homographs and therefore true homonyms in the strict sense)
  • the metal lead and the present tense of the verb lead (homographs but not homophones)

Related terms

• homonymic
• homonymous

Translations

word with the same sound or spelling but different meaning

• Armenian: համանուն (hy) (hamanun)
• Catalan: homònim m, n
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 同音異義詞, 同音异义词 (tóngyīn yìyì), 同音詞 (zh), 同音词 (zh) (tóngyīncí)

• Crimean Tatar: omonim
• Czech: homonymum (cs) n
• Dutch: homoniem (nl) n
• Esperanto: homonimo
• Finnish: homonymia
• French: homonyme (fr) m, n
• German: Homonym (de) n, Homonymum n
• Greek: ομώνυμο (el) n (omónymo)
• Hebrew: הוֹמוֹנִים m
• Ido: homonimo (io)

• Japanese: 同音異義語 (dōon igigo), 同音語 (dōongo)
• Khmer: កល្បពាក្យ (kɑlpa’ piek)
• Korean: 동음 이의어 (同音異義語, dong-um ei-uei-eo)
• Kumyk: аваздаш (avazdaş)
• Latin: homonymum n
• Manx: co-ennym m
• Polish: homonim (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: homónimo (pt) m (Portugal), homônimo (pt) (Brazil)
• Romanian: omonim (ro) m
• Russian: омо́ним (ru) m (omónim)
• Serbo-Croatian: homonim (sh) m
• Spanish: homónimo (es) m
• Swedish: homonym (sv) c
• Turkish: homonim (tr), sesteş (tr)

See also

An Euler diagram showing the relationship between these -nyms.

Different Meanings

nym	Sound	Spelling	Category
homonym	same	same
heteronym	different	same	(cat)
homograph	not specified	same
homophone	same	different	(cat)
heterophone	different	different
synonym	different	different

---

HOMO = SAME

Meaning Spelling Pronunciation

Homo+graph different same different

Homo+nym same different different

Homo+Phone different different same

HETERO = DIFFERENT

Hetero+graph same different same

Hetero+nym different same same

Hetero+phone same different different

---

Swedish

Noun

homonym n, c

1. homonym

Declension

Declension of homonym
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	homonym	homonymen	homonymer	homonymerna
Genitive	homonyms	homonymens	homonymers	homonymernas