noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A word having the same spelling as another but a different meaning, and, often, a different pronunciation.

   "Near-synonyms: heterophone, homograph"

2. 2
   two words are heteronyms if they are spelled the same way but differ in pronunciation wordnet
3. 3
   A fictitious character created by an author for the purpose of writing in a different style.

Synonyms

All synonyms

heterophoneheterophonehomograph

Example

More examples

"Near-synonyms: heterophone, homograph"

Etymology

Coined around 1900, either from hetero- (“different”) + -onym (“name”) or from Ancient Greek ἑτερώνυμος (heterṓnumos), or perhaps both.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.