Words that sound alike, but are spelled differently?

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Susie Smith

Would three be a crowd? :wink:

No. The more the merrier. Party at Sabrina's house.

[blacknomi]

Welcome!

I will pick you up at the airport.

Come now! Food and drinks are ready.

OK. But what about words that have the same spelling and sound but different and *related* meanings? Like "cleave" where it has two opposite meanings?

e.g.

"He cleaved to her as the rock that anchored his life."

and

"She cleaved the great stone in two with one mighty blow."

I know there is actually a term for words like these but I can't think of it.


Nate

Originally Posted by goldnate

OK. But what about words that have the same spelling and sound but different and *related* meanings? Like "cleave" where it has two opposite meanings?

e.g.

"He cleaved to her as the rock that anchored his life."

and

"She cleaved the great stone in two with one mighty blow."

I know there is actually a term for words like these but I can't think of it.


Nate

Contranyms

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by goldnate

OK. But what about words that have the same spelling and sound but different and *related* meanings? Like "cleave" where it has two opposite meanings? e.g. "He cleaved to her as the rock that anchored his life" and "She cleaved the great stone in two with one mighty blow." I know there is actually a term for words like these but I can't think of it.

In addition,

An auto-antonym is a word that is the opposite of itself. There are various synonyms: contranyms, contronyms, antagonyms, antilogies, Janus words (after the two-faced Greek mythical figure, from which "January" also derives), and enantiodromes.

EX: to dust the furniture (to take away, remove fine particles).
EX: to dust the crops (to put on, sprinkle fine particles).

The auto-antonyms cleave and cleave are homonyms (They are pronounced the same), as well as homographs (They are spelled the same):

The term auto-antonym refers to meaning, semantics.
The term homonym refers to pronunciation.
The term homograph refers to written form.

Homonyms: 'homo' means, same, and 'nym' means, form. Homonyms are words that have the same pronunciation e.g., dust the furniture, dust the crops; the saving and loan bank and the river bank; I was allowed to go and Read it aloud.

Heteronyms: 'hetero' means, different, and 'nym' means, form. Heteronyms are words that have different pronunications e.g., There's a strong wind today and Please wind your watch.

Homographs: 'homo' means, same, and 'graph' means, spelling. Homographs are words that have the same spelling. Heteronyms wind/wind and homonyms dust/dust are homographs.

Here's something cool: 8)

Oronyms: 'oro' means, spoken, and 'nym' means, form. Oronyms are phrases that have the same pronunciation:

EX: I've watched some others .
EX: I've watched some mothers.

Source

[Tdol]

Here's a 'nym words' page:
http://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_words.html

[Jinky Williams]

There are homonyms and heteronyms, yes. But there are also a third type which really throws things into confusion: Metronyms. These look like and generally behave like homonyms but are really heteronyms.

[sheena55ro]

Well, you are talking about a new category or a new name :homomorph = homo+morph.
Ok, but where is the word related to pronunciation or ,better said,the part of the word related to sounds involved here [the Phonetics]?.
ex. brakes
breaks

In my opinion, the word "homophone" is better than anything else. Or am I wrong? I think that the emphasis falls at first on the sound and , therefore, there should be also the word "phone" a part in the composition of this category.

[majorboredom]

Originally Posted by RonBee

I would prefer heteronym rather than use homonym as a subcategory of homonym. (It's rather confusing.)

heteronym:
heteronym - OneLook Dictionary Search

What do you think?

:)

This was the funniest thing I've read all day. I was looking for the answer to the above question on my own, when I stumbled into this site. I registered just to tell you how much I, and my friend, enjoyed that remark.

That is all.