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Homonym. In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either homographs —words that have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation)—or homophones —words that have the same pronunciation (regardless of spelling)—or both. [1] Using this definition, the words row (propel with oars), row (a linear arrangement) and row (an argument) are ...
Venn diagram showing the relationships between homophones (blue circle) and related linguistic concepts. A homophone (/ ˈhɒməfoʊn, ˈhoʊmə -/) is a word that is pronounced the same (to a varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning and sometimes also in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example rose (flower ...
Polysemy (/ pəˈlɪsɪmi / or / ˈpɒlɪˌsiːmi /; [1][2] from Ancient Greek πολύ- (polý-) 'many' and σῆμα (sêma) 'sign') is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. [3] Polysemy is distinct from monosemy, where a ...
A heteronym (also known as a heterophone) is a word that has a different pronunciation and meaning from another word but the same spelling. These are homographs that are not homophones. Thus, lead (/ˈlɛd/ the metal) and lead (/ˈliːd/ a leash) are heteronyms, but mean (/ˈmin/ average) and mean (/ˈmin/ intend) are not, since they are ...
Doublet (linguistics) In etymology, two or more words in the same language are called doublets or etymological twins or twinlings (or possibly triplets, and so forth) when they have different phonological forms but the same etymological root. Often, but not always, the words entered the language through different routes.
Tautology (language) In literary criticism and rhetoric, a tautology is a statement that repeats an idea, using near-synonymous morphemes, words or phrases, effectively "saying the same thing twice". [1][2] Tautology and pleonasm are not consistently differentiated in literature. [3] Like pleonasm, tautology is often considered a fault of style ...
Translations, or semantic equivalents, are words in two different languages that have similar or practically identical meanings. They may be cognate, but usually they are not. For example, the German equivalent of the English word cow is Kuh, which is also cognate, but the French equivalent is vache, which is unrelated.
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. [ 2 ] For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can ...