Homonyms

In linguistics, homonyms are words that are either homographs, words that mean different things but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation); or homophones, words that mean different things but have the same pronunciation (regardless of spelling). Using this definition, the words row (propel with oars), row (a linear arrangement) and row (an argument) are homonyms because they are homographs (though only the first two are homophones). So are the words see (vision) and sea (body of water), because they are homophones (though not homographs). A more restrictive and technical definition requires that homonyms be simultaneously homographs and homophones—that is, they have identical spelling and pronunciation but different meanings. Examples include the pair stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person) and the pair left (past tense of leave) and left (opposite of right). A distinction is sometimes made between true homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal). The relationship between a set of homonyms is called homonymy, and the associated adjective is homonymous, homonymic, or in Latin, equivocal. Additionally, the adjective homonymous can be used wherever two items share the same name, independent of how closely they are related in terms of their meaning or etymology. For example, the English word once (meaning 'one time') is homonymous (homographic) with the term for 'eleven' in Spanish, once.