homograph

American  

[hom-uh-graf, -grahf, hoh-muh-] / ˈhɒm əˌgræf, -ˌgrɑf, ˈhoʊ mə- /

noun

1. a word of the same written form as another but of different meaning and usually origin, whether pronounced the same way or not, as bear 1 “to carry; support” and bear 2 “animal” or lead 1 “to conduct” and lead 2 “metal.”

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homograph British  

/ ˈhɒməˌɡræf, -ˌɡrɑːf /

noun

1. one of a group of words spelt in the same way but having different meanings Compare heteronym

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Usage

What is a homograph? Homographs are words that have the same spelling but different meanings, whether they’re pronounced the same or not. Bass (the fish, rhymes with class) and bass (the instrument, rhymes with ace) are homographs. But so are bark (the sound a dog makes) and bark (the covering of a tree).These two senses of bark can also be considered homophones. You can learn more about the difference in the next section.There are many homographs in English, including many commonly used words, which can make things confusing, even for native speakers.

Related Words

See homonym.

Other Word Forms

• homographic adjective

Etymology

Origin of homograph

First recorded in 1800–10; homo- + -graph

Example Sentences

Cyber security expert Graham Cluley said the scam - known as a homograph attack - exploits the close similarity between two different characters or letters.

From BBC

In particular, the tool will seek to tackle the growth of so-called homograph attacks that exploit modern browsers' ability to handle non-English characters.

From BBC

These homographs, as they're called, can lead to embarrassment not just for holidaymakers but for governments as well.

From BBC

Mozilla, however, declined to fix it, arguing that it’s Apple’s problem to solve: “it is sadly the responsibility of domain owners to check for whole-script homographs and register them”.

From The Guardian

Cleave can be cleaved into two “homographs,” words with different origins that end up spelled the same.

From Salon