In Homophones, Homographs and Homonyms, there are three things that play the most important role. These are Pronunciation, Spelling, and Meaning.
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What are Homophones ?
Homophones are two or more words having the same (almost same) pronunciation but different meanings, and spelling.
Examples :
Week – Weak
Dear – Deer
In the first pair,
“Week” means “A period of 7 days”
“Weak” means “Feeble”
Here, Meanings and Spellings are different. Only pronunciations are the same.
125 Pairs Most important Homophones in English (Homophones List : A – Z)
1. Advice - Advise 2. Accept - Except 3. Access - Excess 4. Affect - Effect 5. Addition - Edition 6. Altar - Alter 7. Ate - Eight 8. Ascent - Assent 9. Adapt - Adopt 10. Air - Heir 11. Ad - Add 12. All - Awl 13. Aural - Oral 14. Amend - Emend 15. Be - Bee 16. Bare - Bear 17. Birth - Berth 18. Beside - Besides 19. Boar - Bore 20. Ball - Bawl 21. Beet - Beat 22. Buy - By - Bye 23. Break - Brake 24. Cease - Seize 25. Cast - Caste 26. Career - Carrier 27. Check - Cheque 28. Cite - Sight 29. Course - Coarse 30. Complement - Compliment 31. Council - Counsel 32. Dew - Due 33. Desert - Dessert 34. Decease - Disease 35. Defer - Differ 36. Deference - Difference 37. Die - Dye 38. Dual - Duel 39. Dear - Deer 40. Dependent - Defendant 41. Eminent - Imminent 42. Expand - Expend 43. Extant - Extent 44. Emigrant - Immigrant 45. Eye - I 46. Earn - Urn 47. Eligible - Illegible 48. Fair - Fare 49. Farm - Firm 50. Flower - Flour 51. Foul - Fowl 52. For - Four 53. Hair - Here 54. Hail - Hell 55. Human - Humane 56. Haven - Heaven 57. Holy - Wholly 58. Heel - Heal 59. Hole - Whole 60. Him - Hymn 61. Hour - Our 62. Idle - Idol 63. Ingenious - Ingenuous 64. Jealous - Zealous 65. Know - No 66. Knot - Not 67. Loose - Lose 68. Lone - Loan 69. Lightning - Lightening - Lighting 70. Lesson - Lessen 71. Meet - Meat 72. Made - Maid 73. Main - Mane 74. Moral - Morale 75. Morning - Mourning 76. Male - Mail 77. None - Nun 78. Need - Knead 79. Naughty - Knotty 80. Night - Knight 81. Peace - Piece 82. Pity - Piety 83. Pray - Prey 84. Personal - Personnel 85. Principal - Principle 86. President - Precedent 87. Prescribe - Proscribe 88. Profit - Prophet 89. Plane - Plain 90. Peak - Pick 91. Poor - Pour 92. Quite - Quiet 93. Right - Rite 94. Root - Route 95. Rain - Reign 96. Role - Roll 97. Real - Reel 98. Steal - Steel - Still 99. Soul - Sole 100. Sore - Soar 101. Stair - Stare 102. Stalk - Stock 103. Sun - Son 104. Some - Sum 105. Sail - Sale 106. Scene - Seen 107. See - Sea 108. Staff - Stuff 109. There - Their 110. Tail - Tale 111. Tamper - Temper 112. Than - Then 113. To - Two - Too 114. Vain - Vein 115. Vary - Very 116. Warm - Worm 117. Wander - Wonder 118. Wood - Would 119. Weather - Whether 120. Ware - Wear 121. Way - Weigh 122. Wave - Waive 123. Won - One 124. Waste - Waist 125. Weak - Week
What are Homographs ?
Homographs are two or more words having the same spelling, but different pronunciation and different meanings.
Examples :
Lead – Lead
Bow – Bow
In the first pair,
First “Lead” is a verb that means “to guide”.
Second “Lead” is a noun which is a chemical element. The symbol of “Lead” is Pb.
What are Homonyms ?
Homonyms are two or more words having the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings.
Examples :
Can – Can
Bat – Bat
Cricket – Cricket
Right – Right
Fly – Fly
Palm – Palm
Kite – Kite
In the first pair,
Spelling and Pronunciation are the same. But Meanings are different. The first “Can” is a modal verb. It is used to show ability. The second “Can” means a container.
In the Second pair,
Spelling and Pronunciation are the same. But Meanings are different. The first “Bat” is a Cricket equipment. The second “Bat” is a mammal that can fly.
How many homophones are there in the English language ?
There is no exact number of Homophones in the English Language. There are numerous pairs of Homophones in the English language.