HOMONYMS, HOMOPHONES AND HOMOGRAPHS

Exercise

Look at the pairs of words below. What is similar about the words in each pair? What is different about them?

1. flat (apartment), flat (smooth)

2. sea, see

3. close (verb), close (adjective)

     The words in each pair above are similar in some ways - they have the same spelling and/or pronunciation - but they have different meanings. Homonyms are words which have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings (number 1).

     Homophones are words which have the same pronunciation but different meanings and spellings (number 2).

     Homographs are words that have the same spelling but a different pronunciation and meaning (number 3). 😊