Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🔤 Same spelling, different meaning 📐 Projective mapping
homographic

homographic

8.6
Written the same as another word but with a different meaning or sound
  • adjective
  • /ˌhoʊməˈɡræfɪk/
  • Specialized
: homográfico
  • It has also been our practice, in Newcastle, to tag some of the more common homographic forms in order to distinguish the different uses of words like "so" and "that."

Examples

  • The word lead is an example of a homographic term because it can mean either a type of metal or to guide someone.

  • Nevertheless, recent investigations have demonstrated that the relationship between the two genres is only due to their homographic quality.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Although both tear (to rip) and tear (a drop from the eye) are spelled the same, their different meanings make them homographic.

  • Homographic words like bass can confuse language learners, as it refers to both a type of fish and a low-frequency sound.

Synonyms

homonymous
vshomographic
1 9.3

Words with the same spelling or sound but different meanings

focuses only on words sharing the written form not pronunciation
homonymic
vshomographic
1 9.9

Describing words that sound the same but have different meanings

focuses on words sharing only the written form rather than sound

Surface Forms

homographic positive

Morphology

homographic = homograph (semi-transparent) = homo + graph + ic

The adjective is formed regularly from the noun 'homograph', but the term is a specialized technical label rather than an everyday meaning.

Etymology

The word homographic comes from homo- 'same' and graph 'write', the same parts you see in autograph. So a homographic word has the 'same writing' as another word but a different meaning or sound, for example the word 'tear' meaning to rip and 'tear' meaning a drop from the eye.