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

Example Sentences

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

From Seattle Times • Dec. 14, 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

Pi, which can be used to calculate various geometric features of a circle, is also obviously a homophone to pie, perhaps explaining people’s willingness to celebrate the contrived holiday.

From Slate • Mar. 14, 2018

Since poach is a somewhat confused homophone, its adjective poachy has no chance against stolchy.

From Society for Pure English, Tract 05 The Englishing of French Words; the Dialectal Words in Blunden's Poems by Society for Pure English