homophones

Cultural

Two words that sound alike. This category includes words that are spelled the same, such as trunk (of an elephant) and trunk (a storage chest), as well as words spelled differently, such as deer and dear.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Here are some common homophones and their meanings:

From Textbooks • Dec. 21, 2021

And I argue that even though he’s world-famous and globally acclaimed, he’s really underrated for the kind of sophisticated nuanced deployment of homophones, metonymy, simile, metaphor, braggadocio, allusion.

From Washington Post • Dec. 19, 2019

Are you good at phrases that incorporate complicated Mandarin homophones?

From The Guardian • May 15, 2019

Kay and Kaye, thirty and thirty-one, are not related or married: their last names happen to be homophones.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 4, 2019

True homophones are separate words which have, or have acquired, an illogical fortuitous identity.

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023