Difference Between Homonyms and Homophones

Homonyms and Homophones

Homonyms and homophones are words which sound the same; they may or may not have the same spelling but definitely have different meanings.

Homonyms
Homonyms are words which sound the same and are differentiated into two different categories; homophones and homographs.

Homographs
They are words which are spelled the same way but have different meanings and may or may not have a different pronunciation. “Homograph” is a word that has been derived from two words, “homo” which means “same” and “graph” which means “writing.” Thus it means words which are written the same way, meaning the spelling is the same. Some examples are:

Homograph with the same spelling but different pronunciations as does and does.

She does like to eat chocolate pudding.
Does, the female deer, are gentle animals.

Homograph with the same spelling and same pronunciations as ball and ball.

Children like to play with the ball.
Cinderella went to the royal ball in a pumpkin-shaped chariot.

Homophones
Homophones are words which have the same sound but have different meanings and different spellings also. The word “homophone” has been derived from two words, “homo” and “phone.” “Homo” means “same” and “phone” means “sound.” Thus the word refers to words which have the same sound. Some examples are:

To, two, and too, as in:

She wants to go to the market.
She has two children.
She wants to go to the movie too.

Here and hear, as in:

The children want to play here in this room.
The children could hear the music coming from the living room.

Great and grate, as in:

What a great man was he?
Grate the cheese before adding it to the dish.
One of the important things about homophones is that they are dependent on the regional dialect of a particular country or state. For example, weather and whether sound the same in many parts of the USA. Flour and flower are pronounced the same way in Britain but not in the U.S.
Summary:

1.Homonyms are words which sound the same but have different meanings and different spellings. Homonyms are differentiated into two different types of words, homophones and homographs; one of the types of homonyms is homophones. They are words which sound the same but have different meanings.
2.All homophones are homonyms, but all homonyms are not homophones. They could be homographs too.

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