We explain what paronyms are in language and their differences with homonyms. Also, examples and their use in sentences.
What are paronyms?
Paronyms are words that share a relationship of phonetic similarity (that is, of sound), but they have different meanings and etymologies. In other words, paronyms are those that sound similar, but are not related to each other.
A simple example of this type of word is “a” (preposition), “ah” (exclamation) and “ha” (from the verb have), each radically different despite sounding in very similar ways.
This type of semantic relationship, known as paronymy or paronomasia, can consist of a similarity in accentuation, in word morphology, or both. It can be misleading, or it can be part of the playful or stylistic strategies of the word game, the poetry or gambling, since it often allows a message to be encrypted in what is said by similarity.
Examples of paronyms
Here are some examples of paronyms in Spanish:
- Absorption / adsorption
- Spices / species
- Attitude / aptitude
- Suicide / allowance
- Singing / Singing
- There / Beech
- Opening / Opening
- Plate / Plate
- Whole / integral / integrated
- Temple / hundred
Paronyms and homonyms
While many paronyms can be homonyms, it is not exactly the same. Homonyms are words that, having a different etymological origin and meaning, share their sound (homophones) or share their spelling (homographs). It is a form of convergence of forms, and not a type of polysemy or multiplicity of meanings of the same word.
Therefore, we can point out a couple of differences between paronyms and homonyms:
- Paronyms have sonorous similarity, while homonyms are identical in their form (sound or written).
- Paronyms may vary by letter, accentuation, or similar subtleties, while homonyms are identical in their shared feature.
Sentences with Paronyms
Here are some possible sentences that use paronyms as examples:
- Winning a hundred is not the same as getting hit on the temple.
- The bad thing about an abscess is that it is never easily accessible.
- Who gets married, gets married
- To form always implies to deform.
- If you don't have the aptitude, at least have the attitude.
- It is unrecognizable, as it has been attacked with acid.