Homophone

//ˈhɑməfoʊn// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A word which is pronounced the same as another word but differs in spelling or meaning or origin.
  2. 2
    two words are homophones if they are pronounced the same way but differ in meaning or spelling or both (e.g. bare and bear) wordnet
  3. 3
    A letter or group of letters which are pronounced the same as another letter or group of letters.

Synonyms

All synonyms
antonymarticulationcarbon copycopydead ringerditto

Example

More examples

"English mother-tongue speakers are embarrassed to correctly pronounce the name of the German philosopher Kant, which is a homophone for a vulgar expression referring to the female genitals."

Etymology

From French homophone; equivalent to homo- (“same”) + -phone (“sound”).

More for "homophone"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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