This is a Venn diagram showing the relationships between homographs (yellow) and related linguistic concepts.
A homograph (from the , homós, "same" and γράφω, gráphō, "write") is one of a group of words that share the same spelling but have different meanings. When spoken, the meanings may be distinguished by different pronunciations (in which case the words are also heteronyms) or they may not (in which case the words are also both homophones and homonyms[1]).
Examples:
In (1) all three words are identical in spelling and pronunciation (i.e. they are also homophones), but differ in meaning and function. These are commonly described as different senses of the same word, but if a word is regarded as a unique idea separate from its orthography and pronunciation then they are two different words.
(2) is an example of two words spelt identically but pronounced differently. Here confusion is not possible in spoken language.
Homograph disambiguation is critically important in speech synthesis, natural language processing and other fields.
In typography, "homograph" is sometimes used as a synomym for homoglyph.
| Word | Example of first meaning | Example of second meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Dove | The dove cooed at the passers-by. | Patricia dove into the pool with barely a splash. |
| Close | "Will you please close that door!" | The tiger was now so close that I could smell it... |
| Wind | Frank's arthritic fingers could not wind up the clock again. | The wind howled through the woodlands. |
bg:Омограф cv:Омограф da:Homograf de:Homograph es:Homografía fa:همنویس gl:Homógrafo he:הומוגרף id:Homograf lt:Homografas nl:Homograaf ja:同綴異義語 no:Homograf pt:Homógrafo ro:Omograf ru:Омографы simple:Homograph sv:Homograf tl:Homograpo uk:Омографи
