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If two words are described as homonymous, it means they are homonyms—words that have different meanings but are pronounced the same or spelled the same or both.

Homonymous can also mean having the same name.

The word homonym can be used as a synonym for both homophone and homograph. It can also be used to refer to words that are both homophones and homographs.

Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings, whether �ٳ���’r�� spelled the same or not. There, their, and �ٳ���’r�� are homophones. But so are bark (the sound a dog makes) and bark (the covering of a tree).

Homographs are words that have the same spelling but different meanings, whether �ٳ���’r�� pronounced the same or not. Bass (the fish, rhymes with class) and bass (the instrument, rhymes with ace) are homographs. But so are bark (the sound a dog makes) and bark (the covering of a tree).

As you can see, the two senses of bark can be considered both homographs and homophones. The word homonym can also be used to refer to such words—meaning they have both the same spelling and the same pronunciation, but different meanings.

The related noun homonymy refers to the relationship between words that are homonyms.

Example: Many English words are homonymous, which can make things confusing, even for native speakers.

The first records of the word homonymous come from around 1620. It is a combination of homo-, meaning “same,” -nym, meaning “name,” and -ous, which is used to form adjectives. Similarly, two words that are synonyms can be described as synonymous.

The -graph in homograph means “written.” Homographs are words that are written the same—meaning they always have the same spelling—but have different meanings. Homographs can be pronounced the same or not.

The -phone in homophone means “sound.” Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings, whether �ٳ���’r�� spelled the same or not.

So words described as homonymous might be spelled the same, pronounced the same, or both.

What are some other forms related to homonymous?

• homonym (noun)

What are some synonyms for homonymous?

• homographic
• homophonous
• homophonic

What are some words that share a root or word element with homonymous?��

• homonymy
• synonymous

What are some words that often get used in discussing homonymous?

• homophone
• homograph
• pronunciation
• sound
• spelling
• meaning

It is much more common to say two words are homonyms than to describe them as homonymous.

It's good that "self-own" and "cell phone" are homonymous.

— Adam Rogers (@jetjocko)

A poet, a snark, a baker, and the snow queen all gather for a homonymous meeting. One of them is you. You are:

— Canby (@__AsCanby)

Amazing. I don’t know where our kid picked up ‘our broath’ for ‘Arbroath’ – they are homonymous with an RP accent, but definitely not a Scottish accent – but it cracks me up. (In my accent, ‘our broath’ is definitely ‘owur-broth’, with the ‘bro’ like ‘Want some ’za, bro?’ ☺️)

— Christopher Phin (@chrisphin)

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Which of the following word pairs could be considered homonymous?

A. air and heir
B. bare and bear
C. bear and bear
D. all of the above