- Heterophone
In linguistics, heterophones are words that are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and meanings, such as "desert" (abandon) and "desert" (arid region). Heterophones are a type of
homonym , and are also called heteronyms. The state of being a heterophone is called heterophony. Opposite to heterophones are homophones: words that sound exactly the same (and may or may not have different spellings)."Heterophone" literally just means "different sound", and the term is sometimes applied to words that are just pronounced differently, irrespective of their spelling. Such a definition would obviously include virtually every pair of words in the language, so "heterophone" in this sense is normally restricted to instances where there is some particular reason to highlight the different sound. For example,
pun s normally involve homophones, but in the case of heterophonic (or imperfect) puns, the two words sound different, and yet similar enough for one to suggest the other (for example, "mouth" and "mouse").Some examples are:
#Do you know what a buck does to does?
#With every number I read, my mind gets number and number.
#After having a row, the couple went out on the river to row.
#I like to read. In fact, I read a book yesterday.
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