Homograph
Homographs are words that look like each other, but have different meanings and sometimes different sounds. For example, the four letter group bore may be:
- a verb meaning 'to be tedious' in its base form: lecturers should try not to bore students (and vice-versa);
- a noun meaning a person or thing that has the effect of that verb - some lecturers (and some students), we fear, are bores;
- another verb meaning 'to drill a hole in' or 'to hollow out': people bore tunnels and mines, and also delicately in jewellery and woodwork;
- various nouns connected with that: shotguns may be defined as 'of full bore';
- the past tense of a third verb, 'to bear': "in the past, most mothers bore their children at home", and "he bore his injury bravely";
- and a form of wave that rushes up a river at high tide.
These homographs all sound the same: they are homonyms. Some homographs on the other hand sound different, although they remain identical to the eye. There is a metal called lead: the homographic verb 'to lead' has no connection of meaning or of history to this, and does not even sound like it. (The metal rhymes with 'red', while the verb rhymes with 'read' and 'deed'.) In the homographic pair 'Reading' and 'reading', the first vowel sound varies. The name of the town in Berkshire is pronounced with the first syllable rhyming with 'head' and 'dead' (IPA: /Éœ/); the -ing participle of the verb, as in "I am reading", has a first syllable like 'to read' (IPA: /iË/).
Note that homographs come in groups - it is not logical to have a homograph with no companion.
- You may also like to see AWE's article on homonyms.
