Words & WritingGreek → English
Homophone
/ˈhɒməfəʊn/noun
A word pronounced like another but different in meaning and usually in spelling.
The Greek roots
ὁμός
homós
same
φωνή
phōnḗ
sound, voice
Literally: “same sound”
The story of the word
Watch the first element: ὁμός means same, while the Latin homo means man, and confusing the two produces the standard error about homosexual. Its partners homograph, same writing, and homonym, same name, divide the territory that ordinary speech lumps together. Modern Greek has more homophones than ancient Greek did, because several distinct vowels and diphthongs collapsed into the sound i.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English coinage
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
homographhomonymtelephonesymphony
In a sentence
Their, there and they're are the homophones that break autocorrect.