Concept in Definition ABC

The word homography comes from the Greek and is formed by homo, which means equal, and by spelling, What does it mean writing. Therefore, it is about those words that, having the same type of writing or spelling, have different meanings.

Homograph words can lead to spelling errors, since being exactly the same they can be confused. This circumstance is common among students of a language foreign.

Keep in mind that the difference in meaning between the two words is due to the fact that each of them belongs to one category different grammar.

Homography must be understood as a specific form of homonymy. In this sense, the hominymy between two words occurs when each of them has a different origin, but they share the same writing. Hominymy is, in turn, the opposite of synonymy, that is, two different terms but with the same meaning.

Illustrative examples of homograph words

The word candle has two meanings. It is a wax object that serves to illuminate and at the same time is a piece of cloth for a boat.

The term nothing is a adverb of quantity that means the opposite of everything and, at the same time, is an indicative form of the verb to swim.

The verb to arm means to obtain weapons and also to assemble.

A fool is an extinct bird and is also synonymous with a distracted person.

The word glue means glue, but it also refers to a group of people waiting to be served.

Wine is a noun and refers to an alcoholic beverage and is also the third person of the singular of preterite indefinite of the verb to come.

Do not confuse homography with homophony

Two words are homophones if they are pronounced exactly the same, but they have a different spelling and meaning. A) Yes, cow and baca, hello and wave, vote and boot, open and there would be, until they would even be examples of pairs of homophone words.

Homograph words in English and French

In most languages ​​the phenomenon of homography occurs. If we take the English language as a reference, there are some cases of words with the same spelling but with different meanings. Thus, lead means to guide and also means lead, wind is wind or wind, down means down or down, etc. In French, homography is also quite common (page is page or page, mode means grammatical mode or mode, lettre means letter and at the same time lyrics).

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