heteronym

English

WOTD – 21 November 2008

Etymology

Coined around 1900, either from hetero- (different) + -onym (name) or from Ancient Greek ἑτερώνυμος (heterṓnumos), or perhaps both.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈhɛt.əɹ.ə(ʊ).nɪm/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈhɛt.ə.ɹoʊ.nɪm/, /ˈhɛt.ə.ɹə.nɪm/
  • (file)

Noun

heteronym (plural heteronyms)

  1. (linguistics) A word having the same spelling as another, but a different pronunciation and meaning.
    Agape, "astonished" or "wide open," is a heteronym of agape, "Christian love."
  2. (literature) A fictitious character created by an author for the purpose of writing in a different style.

Synonyms

Translations

See also

  • List of English heteronyms defined in Wiktionary
  • polyphone (a letter [or combination of letters] that can be pronounced in two or more different ways, such as / in Chinese, pronounced [cháng] in the sense of ’long’ and [zhǎng] in the sense of ’to grow’)
An Euler diagram showing the relationship between these -nyms.
Nyms (with category [cat] if any)
nym Sound Spelling Meaning phone/graph
homonym same same different homophone & homograph
heteronym (cat) different same different homograph
heterograph same different different homophone (cat)
heterophone different same same homograph
synonym different different same
alternative spelling same different same homophone
identical same same same not applicable
distinct different different different
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