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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 ...
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]
If, when spoken, the meanings may be distinguished by different pronunciations, the words are also heteronyms. Words with the same writing and pronunciation (i.e. are both homographs and homophones) are considered homonyms. However, in a broader sense the term "homonym" may be applied to words with the same writing or pronunciation.
Some are homonyms, such as basta, which can either mean 'enough' or 'coarse', and some exist because of homophonous letters. For example, the letters b and v are pronounced exactly alike, so the words basta (coarse) and vasta (vast) are pronounced identically. [17] Other homonyms are spelled the same, but mean different things in different genders.
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; As the verb to buffalo, meaning (in American English [1] [2]) "to bully, harass, or intimidate" or "to baffle"; and
Polysemy (/ p ə ˈ l ɪ s ɪ m i / or / ˈ p ɒ l ɪ ˌ s iː m i /; [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.
Some spelling variants are explicitly defined by the Code as being homonyms. Otherwise the one-letter difference rule applies. In species, primary homonyms are those with the same genus and same species in their original combination. The difference between a junior primary homonym and a subsequent use of a name is undefined, but it is commonly ...
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 ...