See Site links and related links

Comparison of definitions of "homo-" words

Click for symbol explanations,   some comments,
an example of how to interpret the data, or dictionary abbreviations.

   Homograph  Homonym  homophone
Dictionary  SplgMngOrigPron SplgMngOrigPron SplgMngOrigPron
AHD4
(See Note 1)
And SDDDs SoD-S DsDDS
Or ---- ---- ----
Ch93And S--- SmDDS DD-S
Or -ddd ---- ----
CIDE
(See Note 2)
And SD-X SD-- ---S
Or ---- ---- dbdb--
MEU3And S--- -D-- ---S
Or -dd- s--s ddd-
MWCDAnd S--- SD-S ---S
Or -ddd ---- ddd-

   Homograph  Homonym  homophone
Dictionary  SplgMngOrigPron SplgMngOrigPron SplgMngOrigPron
NSOEDAnd S--- SDD- ---S
Or -ddd ---- ddd-
OCEL
(See Note 3)
And SDDD -D-- DD-S
Or ---- s--s ----
OEDAnd SDD- -D-S ---S
Or ---- ---- -dd-
Ox AmerAnd S--- -D-- ---S
Or -dd- s--s ----
RHWUDAnd SDDuX SD-S XD-S
Or ---- ---- ----

   Homograph  Homonym  homophone
Dictionary  SplgMngOrigPron SplgMngOrigPron SplgMngOrigPron
W3NIDAnd S--- SD-S ---S
Or -ddd ---- ddd-
WNIDAnd SDD- -D-S DoD-S
Or ---- ---- ----
WNID2And SDD- DoDDS DuD-S
Or ---- ---- ----
WNWCDAnd SDDSm DuDDS ---S
Or ---- ---- ----
IMHO
(See Note 4)
And S-D- SD-S D--S
Or ---- ---- ----

Note 1:

AHD3 definitions are the same as those in AHD4.

Note 2:

CIDE goes to The Cambridge Dictionary of American English for the definition of "homonym".

Note 3:

OCEL splits "homonym" three ways:
  1. Words that sound and look alike
  2. Words that sound alike but don't look alike (called "homophones")
  3. Words that look alike but don't sound alike (called "homographs")

Note 4:

"IMHO" means, as usual, "in my humble opinion".  The definitions in that row are my preferences.

I prefer to have "homograph" defined nearly the same way it's defined in the OED, the only difference being that I don't think words with the same meaning should be excluded from being homographs.  I believe that the most interesting homograph pair of all is one where the two words have come from two completely different etyma and have converged to have the same spelling, pronunciation and meaning.  Homographs of that sort are probably extremely rare in English, but someone has proposed "biddy" as a candidate.  It can refer to a woman.  In one derivation, "biddy" has come as a nickname for "Bridget".  In the other derivation it has come from an earlier word for a chicken.  Dictionaries don't support this theory unequivocally, but neither do they firmly deny that it's valid.

I dislike a requirement that homographs must be pronounced differently.  This would, for example, keep the two meanings of "repair" from comprising a homograph pair.

I like the OCEL point of view that treats "homonym" as a three-way split.  (See Note 3.)

I prefer not to require that homophones have different meanings.  This would prevent "tyre" and "tire" from being homophones, and I think they should be.

Symbol explanations:

Dictionary abbreviations:

Comments:

The only three things that are consistent over all of the sources are

  1. Every source requires that homophones be pronounced alike.
  2. Every source requires that homographs be spelled alike.
  3. Every source requires that homonyms have different meanings.
Beyond that, the definitions are so diverse that it's not easy to make any summarizing statements about them.

Interpretation example:

As an example of how to interpret the data, I will convert each part of the Chambers 93 entry to a textual description:

  by Bob Cunningham
See Site links and related links

This file was last modified 2008 Feb 9
(Added one item, about homonyms, under "Comments".)