Standard Lemma guide

homonym

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈhɒmənɪm/
  • General-American: /ˈhɑmənɪm/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒmənɪm
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AO1 M AH0 N IH0 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A word that sounds or is spelled the same as another word (but not necessarily both).

A word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

Qualifier: strictly

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences, semantics

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: word, term

2

noun

Meaning 2

A word that sounds or is spelled the same as another word (but not necessarily both).

A name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another name that belongs to a different taxon.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

Topics: biology, natural-sciences, taxonomy

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: word, term

3

noun

Meaning 3

two words are homonyms if they are pronounced or spelled the same way but have different meanings

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: word

Narrower terms: homograph, homophone

History

Etymology

From Latin homōnymum, from Ancient Greek ὁμώνυμον (homṓnumon), nominalized from the neuter of ὁμώνῠμος (homṓnŭmos, “homonymous”). By surface analysis, hom- + -onym.

Across languages

Translations

48 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: homonim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Armenian: համանուն (hamanun) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Bulgarian: омоним (omonim) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Catalan: homònim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Crimean Tatar: omonim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Czech: homonymum — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Danish: homonym — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Dutch: homoniem — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Esperanto: homonimo — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Finnish: homonymia — word with the same sound or spelling
  • French: homonyme — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Georgian: ომონიმი (omonimi) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • German: Homonym — word with the same sound or spelling
  • German: Homonymum — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Greek: ομώνυμο (omónymo) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Greek: ομώνυμος (omónymos) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Ancient Greek: ὁμώνυμος (homṓnumos) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Hebrew: הוֹמוֹנִים — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Hungarian: homonima — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Hungarian: azonos alakú szó — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Ido: homonimo — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Indonesian: homonim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Japanese: 同音異義語 (dōon igigo) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Japanese: 同音語 (dōongo) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Kashmiri: ہَم نٲوؠ (ham nạ̄v') — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Khmer: កល្បពាក្យ (kɑlpa’ piek) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Korean: 동음이의어 (dong'eumiuieo) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Kumyk: аваздаш (awazdaş) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Latin: homonymum — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Malayalam: നാനാർത്ഥം (nānāṟtthaṁ) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Manx: co-ennym — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Māori: kupu huarite — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Polish: homonim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Portuguese: homónimo — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Portuguese: homônimo — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Romanian: omonim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Russian: омо́ним (omónim) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Serbo-Croatian: homonim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Slovene: enakozvočnica — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Slovene: homonim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Spanish: homónimo — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Swedish: homonym — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Tamil: பல்பொருள் ஒருசொல் (palporuḷ orucol) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Thai: คําพ้องความหมาย (kam-pɔ́ɔng-kwaam-mǎai) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Turkish: homonim — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Turkish: sesteş — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Ukrainian: омо́нім (omónim) — word with the same sound or spelling
  • Venetan: omònemo — word with the same sound or spelling