homophones

Spelled differently, identical

Homophones are words that sound alike but differ in meaning and often spelling: to, too, and two; their, there, and they're.

The term comes from Greek words meaning "same sound." Homophones cause frequent spelling errors and fuel puns.

A homophone is also a single such word: Flour is a homophone of flower.

wordplay

puns

Jokes using sound similarities

paronomasiaRhetorical use of puns
play on wordsExploiting linguistic ambiguity humorously
double entendrePhrase with hidden lewdness

malapropism · oronyms · mondegreen · ambiguity · wit · jokes · riddles · cryptic · wordsmith · eggcorns

phonetics

phoneme

Minimal distinctive sound unit

allophoneNon-distinctive sound variation
vowelUnobstructed speech sound
consonantIn agreement with

diphthong · articulation · phonology · syllable · stress · intonation · tone · pitch · voiced · voiceless

confusion

spelling errors

Incorrectly written words

misspellingIncorrect written form
misunderstandingFailure to grasp meaning
ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations

context clues · mishear · dictation · autocorrect · typos · proofreading · editing · clarity · distinguish · sound-alike

Categories

language artsreading comprehension, grammar rules, vocabulary building, phonics, spelling bees
Pronunciationphonetic spelling, pronunciation key, pronunciation keys, syllable stress, word stress
vocabularyword, words, new words, term, terms
word gamescrossword, Scrabble, crossword puzzle, anagram, word game
wordsword meanings, word origins, word history, word roots, synonyms
homophoneshear, here, see, sea, be

Opposites

sound-meaning relationship

homophonessynonyms

Words with shared meaning

heteronyms · homographs · antonyms · oronyms

Family

homophone, homophony, homophonic, homophonous

Familiarity: Top 200,000
Profile: Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G