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Malapropism: incorrect usage of a word by substituting a similar-sounding word with different meaning; Neologism: creating new words Phono-semantic matching: camouflaged/pun borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existent native word (related to folk etymology)
The words bow and bough are examples where there are two meanings associated with a single pronunciation and spelling (the weapon and the knot); two meanings with two different pronunciations (the knot and the act of bending at the waist), and two distinct meanings sharing the same sound but different spellings (bow, the act of bending at the ...
Many of these words have the same origin, and similar meanings, and are essentially the same word. True heteronyms require the two words to be completely unrelated, which is a rare occurrence. For a longer list, see wikt:Category:English heteronyms.
When the prefix "re-" is added to a monosyllabic word, the word gains currency both as a noun and as a verb. Most of the pairs listed below are closely related: for example, "absent" as a noun meaning "missing", and as a verb meaning "to make oneself missing". There are also many cases in which homographs are of an entirely separate origin, or ...
lower of two floors that are each at a different ground level due to sloping terrain (UK: lower ground floor) guard the official in charge of a railway train (US & now UK also: conductor) to watch over for security one who guards a protective device. one of two positions in basketball, usually players who are the best ball-handlers and shooters ...
means of public transportation (q.v.) (esp. of people) ("mass transit", "rapid transit", "public transit") – see Public transport: transport the system or the business of transporting goods or passengers or the vehicles used in such a system ("public transport") * the act of transporting an emotion ("transports of delight") transportation
The term "false cognate" is sometimes misused to refer to false friends, but the two phenomena are distinct. [1] [2] False friends occur when two words in different languages or dialects look similar, but have different meanings. While some false friends are also false cognates, many are genuine cognates (see False friends § Causes). [2]
A homophone (/ ˈ h ɒ m ə f oʊ n, ˈ h oʊ m ə-/) is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example rose (flower) and rose (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, as in rain, reign, and rein.