Standard Lemma guide

homophonous

adj · 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.

  • UK: /həˈmɒfənəs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Having the same pronunciation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, phonetics, phonology, sciences, semantics

Examples

  • "Cot" and "caught" are homophonous in some American accents, as are "there" and "they're".

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Homophonic; sounding the same.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective

Meaning 3

characteristic of the phenomenon of words of different origins that are pronounced the same way

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • 'horse' and 'hoarse' are homophonous words

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Adapted borrowing of Ancient Greek ὁμόφωνος (homóphōnos) + -ous. By surface analysis, homo- + -phonous.

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Breton: heñvelson — having the same pronunciation
  • Catalan: homòfon — having the same pronunciation
  • Dutch: gelijkluidend — having the same pronunciation
  • West-Frisian: lyklûdich — having the same pronunciation
  • German: gleichlautend — having the same pronunciation
  • German: gleichklingend — having the same pronunciation
  • German: homofon — having the same pronunciation
  • Greek: ομόηχος (omóichos) — having the same pronunciation
  • Greek: ομόφωνος (omófonos) — having the same pronunciation
  • Ancient Greek: ὁμόφωνος (homóphōnos) — having the same pronunciation
  • Hungarian: homofon (not infrequently spelled homofón) — having the same pronunciation
  • Italian: omofono — having the same pronunciation
  • Norwegian: homofon — having the same pronunciation
  • Polish: homofoniczny — having the same pronunciation
  • Portuguese: homófono — having the same pronunciation
  • Spanish: homófono — having the same pronunciation
  • Welsh: cyfunsain — having the same pronunciation