homophone

American  

[hom-uh-fohn, hoh-muh-] / ˈhɒm əˌfoʊn, ˈhoʊ mə- /

noun

1. Phonetics. a word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not, as heir and air.

2. a written element that represents the same spoken unit as another, as ks, a homophone of x in English.

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homophone British  

/ ˈhɒməˌfəʊn /

noun

1. one of a group of words pronounced in the same way but differing in meaning or spelling or both, as for example bear and bare

2. a written letter or combination of letters that represents the same speech sound as another

   ``ph'' is a homophone of ``f'' in English

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Usage

What is a homophone? A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning, whether it’s spelled the same or not. There, their, and they’re are homophones. 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 homographs. You can learn more about the difference in the next section. As long as a word has the same pronunciation as another word but a different meaning, it’s a homophone of that word. There are thousands of homophones in English, including many commonly used words, and their identical pronunciations make it so they’re often confusing, even for native speakers. Autocorrect may not recognize an incorrectly used homophone when it’s technically spelled correctly, so you just have to be aware of them as best you can.

Related Words

See homonym.

Etymology

Origin of homophone

First recorded in 1615–25; back formation from homophonous

Explanation

A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning and/or spelling. “Flower” and “flour” are homophones because they are pronounced the same but you certainly can’t bake a cake using daffodils. Other common homophones are write and right, meet and meat, peace and piece. You have to listen to the context to know which word someone means if they’re spoken aloud. If they say they like your jeans (genes?), they’re probably talking about your pants and not your height and eye color — but you’d have to figure it out from the situation!

Example Sentences

But the WHO decided a homophone for “new” would be too confusing.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 14, 2021

It is a homophone for “heart” and “new.”

From New York Times • Oct. 15, 2021

It was also a homophone for “turn,” which fed into the group’s idea of “turning around and moving forward to face the challenges head-on,” according to Tern’s website.

From The Verge • Feb. 11, 2021

“Nine” in Mandarin is a homophone of the word “long”.

From The Guardian • May 15, 2019

It is plain that the Greek is untranslatable into English because of the homophone.

From Society for Pure English, Tract 02 On English Homophones by Bridges, Robert Seymour