Homonyms
Homonyms have the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings (the word comes from the Greek – having the same name), for example, pole and Pole, pear and pare, but also bass and bass. The homonym is the main class of words, divided into homophones and homographs.
Homophones have the same pronunciation
but different meanings, origins or spellings.
Example: new and knew, beat and
beet, fair and fare.
Homographs have the same spelling but
different meanings, with either different pronunciations or the same pronunciation
Example: bass
(the deep singer) and bass (the fish), or cleave (separate) and cleave (join
together).
