What is the word for a word that spell the same but have different meanings?
Homonym From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For homonyms in scientific nomenclature, see Homonym (biology). In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. Some sources only require that homonyms share the same spelling or pronunciation (in addition to having different meanings), but these are the definitions most other sources give for homographs and homophones respectively. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy. Examples of homonyms are stalk (which can mean either part of a plant or to follow someone around), bear (animal) and bear (carry), left (opposite of right) and left (past tense of leave). Some sources also consider the following trio of words to be homonyms, but others designate them as “only” homophones: to, too and two (actually, to, to, too, too and two, being “for the purpose of” as in “to make it easier”, the opposite of “from”, also, excessi