I had an idea to discuss contronyms this month, which are a specific type of homonym, but I realised I don’t have an article on homonyms here. These are an interesting (and difficult) aspect of English, where we have a great many words that can either look or sound the same but have different meanings. Also related are words that sound the same but look different and have different meanings, or that look the same but can sound different,

Fortunately, I already had a short article summarising this, which was originally published on my creative writing website (now sadly gone). So, here’s an updated version of my guide to homonyms, heteronyms, homophones, homographs and heterographs, with a graphic at the bottom.

What’s in the name?

Firstly, to break down these five terms and make them easier to remember, it’s worth considering how they are formed.

The prefixes “homo” and “hetero” typically refer to “the same” or “different” in English. This is perhaps most commonly understood these days from reference to sexual interests (homosexual = same sex, heterosexual = different sex).

The suffix “-phone” refers to sound (like with telephone), so homophone and heterophone relate to pronunciation (the same or different).

The suffix “-graph” refers to writing or recording, so heterography and homograph refers to how the words are spelt (again, the same or differently).

What are homonyms?

Homonyms are two words that are spelt the same, and pronounced the same, but have a different meaning. For example, “right”. This can mean the direction (opposite of left) or to be correct.  There’s a lot of these crafty words in the English language, here are some more examples with two meanings (note they may actually have more than two meanings):

• bark: the sound a dog makes / the outer-surface of a tree trunk
• kind: type of something / nice
• match: an object to make fire / a sports event
• ring: to call on a phone / a circular object (e.g. jewellery)
• well: good / a hole where water is sourced

What are homophones and heterographs?

Next up, homophones. These are words with the same pronunciation but different meanings. These can be homonyms, with the same spelling, like “right” (and “right”), or heterographs, with different spellings, like “write” and “right”. These can also be phrases made up of more than one word, for instance “copywrite”, “copy right” and “copyright” (to write copy, to copy correctly or to legally own a creative right). These are technically heterograph homophones. The important thing is, they all sound the same.

When we see heterographs in writing, it can help separate two similar sounding words that have a different meaning, as the spellings may be very different,  like  through  and threw. However, when listening, it may be difficult to know which meaning is intended, as they sound the same.

What are homographs and heteronyms?

Homographs are words with the same spelling but different meanings. All homonyms are also homographs (so technically “right” is a homonym, a homograph and a homophone).

However, homographs can also be two words with the same spelling that are pronounced differently, for instance “read” in I love to read but I’ve read this book already. Or “bow” in The quality of the bow tied to the ship’s bow made them bow in respect. Homographs with the same spelling and different pronunciations and meanings are called heteronyms.

What does this mean for you?

A lot of the most common mistakes in the English language come from mixing up heterographs, which are the root of some very common confusions, such as the different uses of your and you’re, and there, they’re and their. Mixing up homographs can also lead to a lot of confusion in speech.

Once you are aware of how the same words can produce different meanings, however, you can look out for this. To help you see how these categories can be broken down, I’ve put together a little graphic that demonstrates the overlap between the different word types.

Use this knowledge wisely, to write the right words in future and right the writing you’ve already written.

If you found this article, useful, check out my book, Advanced Writing Skills for Students of English, for more advice on language in use.