homograph words

Language

2022

We explain what homograph words are, examples and their use in various sentences. Also, homophones and polysemic words.

Homographs are written in the same way but they do not mean the same thing.

What are homograph words?

Homograph words are known as those that, despite meaning entirely different things, have the same way of being written. In this way, any two words that are written the same but have different referents, will be known as homographs (from the Greek homoios, "Equal", and graphos, "writing").

Homography is, like homophony, a particular case of homonymy, that is, of homonymous words, which are those that share an identity, a name. In the case of homographs, this identity has to do with their spelling, their way of writing.

This phenomenon is common in the different languages ​​of the world. In some cases the similarity of writing is broken when pronouncing, as in the case of English words read (pronounced [rid], "read and read (pronounced [net], I read).

However, in the Spanish language this type of discrepancy never occurs, and absolutely all homograph words also share their pronunciation, that is, all homographs are homophones (although not vice versa: dropped Y callus they are pronounced the same, but have different spelling).

Examples of homograph words in Spanish

Some simple examples of homograph words in our language are the following:

  • Close (close in distance) / Close (boundary, wire)
  • Pound (unit of weight) / Pound (from the verb librar)
  • One (the number) / One (from the verb to unite)
  • Ve (imperative of the verb to see) / Ve (imperative of the verb to go)
  • Bounce (throw away) / Bounce (bounce a ball)
  • Cola (glue) / Cola (rear appendage of some animals)
  • Erase (coffee residue) / Erase (draft)
  • Boat (water loss) / Boat (boat)
  • Candle (to light) / Candle (to sail)
  • Nothing (nothing) / Nothing (from the verb swim)
  • Wine (alcoholic drink) / Wine (from the verb to come)
  • Sal (table seasoning) / Sal (from the verb to leave)
  • Key (to open the doors) / Key (to change tires)
  • Pile (battery) / Pile (mountain of things)

Sentences with homograph words in Spanish

In Spanish, words that are spelled the same are also pronounced the same way.

Similarly, some prayers Possible homograph words in them are:

  • Son, go to the corner and see if Jacinta arrived.
  • The donkey is near the stable, tied on the wooden fence.
  • The remote control battery should be among that pile of things.
  • Go out and buy salt, please.
  • And if the patient is not cured, we bring him a priest from the church.
  • The cat knocked over the container of glue with its tail.
  • One came from the street, but only one.
  • This is the draft of my novel, you don't know how much I used the draft when writing it.
  • The top of that tree looks like a glass cup.
  • In Lima I bought a lime.
  • Juan came a while ago, but he didn't bring the wine.
  • I don't know why I'm laughing, if I'm in the middle of this river.
  • I love being the master of my dog.

Homograph words and homophone words

Just as there are homograph words, that is, they share a spelling or form of writing, there are also homophone words, which share sound or form of pronunciation.

For example, hair (body hair) and beautiful (which has beauty) have different spellings, but only one pronunciation, since the phonetic difference between / v / and / b / is in disuse in all existing variants of Spanish. This phenomenon is known as homophony (from the Greek homoios, "Equal", and phone, "voice").

Furthermore, on occasions, two homophone words can be homographs as well, as in the case already seen in near (close to) or near (separation, wiring).

Polysemic words

Polysemy is the ability to use the same word with different meanings.

The word polysemy (from the Greek cop-, "Many", and week, "Meaning") is used to indicate that the same word has multiple associated meanings. In other words, the same graphic and phonetic realization can be assigned, depending on the context, different references. For example:

  • Bank. It refers both to the bank of the squares, where one sits, and to the institution financial institution in which you deposit your money, or a group of fish (similar to a school).
  • Saw. It refers to a mountain range (also called serranía), at the same time as a cutting tool, and a type of fish.

Polysemy can be distinguished from homonymy (within which is homography) in that homonymous words have different lexical entries in a dictionary, since basically they are two different words that sound the same.

On the contrary, polysemic words have a single entry in the dictionary, since it is the same word that assumed different meanings.

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