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A homonym which is both a homophone and a homograph is fluke, meaning: A fish, and a flatworm. The end parts of an anchor. The fins on a whale's tail. A stroke of luck. These meanings represent at least three etymologically separate lexemes, but share the one form, fluke. [13]
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 whose meanings have diverged to the point that present-day speakers have little historical understanding: for ...
Principal is an adjective meaning "main" (though it can also be a noun meaning the head of a college or similar institution). Principle is a noun meaning a fundamental belief or rule of action. Standard: The principal achievement of the nineteenth century is the rise of industry. Standard: He got sent to the principal's office for talking ...
It has been discussed in literature in various forms since 1967, when it appeared in Dmitri Borgmann's Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought. The sentence employs three distinct meanings of the word buffalo: As an attributive noun (acting as an adjective) to refer to a specific place named Buffalo, such as the city of Buffalo, New York;
Since the test for polysemy is the vague concept of the relatedness, judgments of polysemy can be difficult to make. Because applying pre-existing words to new situations is a natural process of language change, looking at words' etymology is helpful in determining polysemy but not the only solution; as words become lost in etymology, what once ...
A CBS News investigation found dozens of law enforcement leaders — sheriffs, captains, lieutenants, chiefs of police — buying and illegally selling firearms, even weapons of war, across 23 U.S ...
The final four teams in the Major League Soccer playoffs will wind down to two during the conference finals on Saturday night. Orlando City SC hosts the New York Red Bulls in the Eastern ...
Also apophthegm. A terse, pithy saying, akin to a proverb, maxim, or aphorism. aposiopesis A rhetorical device in which speech is broken off abruptly and the sentence is left unfinished. apostrophe A figure of speech in which a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g., in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes ...