homonymy
Same sound, different meaning
Homonymy is the relationship between words that share the same spelling or pronunciation but have different meanings and origins.
Bank (financial institution) and bank (river's edge) are homonyms—they look and sound identical but developed from unrelated sources.
The term covers both homographs (same spelling) and homophones (same sound).
The homonymy of "bow" causes confusion in writing.
Word having related meanings
- homographShared spelling, separate meanings
- homophoneIdentically pronounced, differently spelled word
- lexemeFundamental dictionary unit
- antonymyOpposite-meaning word relationship
etymology · morpheme · lexicon · semantics · phonology · morphology · lexicography · disambiguation
Ambiguous language avoiding commitment
- confusionMental disorientation or bewilderment
- misunderstandingFailure to grasp meaning
- uncertaintyState of being unsure
- vaguenessAbsence of precision
indeterminacy · conflation · overlap · duality · obscurity · misinterpretation
Wordplay using double meanings
- double-entendreWords with suggestive second meaning
- paronomasiaRhetorical use of puns
- quipBrief, clever remark
- witClever, inventive humor
innuendo · joke · humor · banter · cleverness · jest · jape · play-on-words
polysemy
Word having related meanings
- homographShared spelling, separate meanings
- homophoneIdentically pronounced, differently spelled word
- lexemeFundamental dictionary unit
antonymy · etymology · morpheme · lexicon · semantics · phonology · morphology · lexicography · disambiguation · denotation
equivocation
Ambiguous language avoiding commitment
- confusionMental disorientation or bewilderment
- misunderstandingFailure to grasp meaning
- uncertaintyState of being unsure
vagueness · indeterminacy · conflation · overlap · duality · obscurity · misinterpretation
pun
Wordplay using double meanings
- double-entendreWords with suggestive second meaning
- paronomasiaRhetorical use of puns
- quipBrief, clever remark
wit · innuendo · joke · humor · banter · cleverness · jest · jape · play-on-words · malapropism
- meaningmeaning, sense, significance, denotation, definition
- etymologyword origins, word history, word origin, etymon, root words
- linguisticslinguistics, phoneme, phonemes, morpheme, morphemes
- ambiguityambiguity, ambivalence, double meaning, vagueness, equivocation
- lexicologysynonyms, homophones, homographs, polysemy, antonymy
- semantic relationshypernym, antonymy, relation, synonyms, superordinate