Pedants' Corner - homonyms

And today, in Pedants' Corner, we're going to look at a handful of nyms and a phone.

Homonyms are words with the same spelling, but different meanings. Thus "pot" (as in, "I will cook this in a pot") is a homonym for "pot" (as in, "I don't think you should smoke pot").

Synonyms are words with different spelling, but the same meaning. Thus "set" (as in "I will set this on the table") is a synonym for "put" (as in, "I will put this on the table")

Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation, but have different spellings and meanings. Thus "buy" (as in, "I think this is a good buy") is a homophone for "bye" (as in, "I think this is goodbye").

Pseudonyms are fake names used by people who don't want to use their real name. Thus "Currer Bell" (as in, "Jane Eyre, by Currer Bell") is a pseudonym for "Charlotte Brontë" (as in, "Shirley, by Charlotte Brontë").

The important message to take away from this is that homonyms look alike, but do not necessarily sound alike, while homophones sound alike but do not necessarily look alike.

It's easy enough to remember once you notice that "homophone" has the phoneme "phone" in it. "Homo" means "same", "phone" means "sound".

I mention this because I came across a website that specialises in helping people work out easily confused words... and they had accidentally used "homonym" instead of "homophone" on their own front page...