Homonymen

Homonymen, in German terminology, refer to words that share the same form but have different meanings. In English usage, the term homonyms is often used in a broader sense to cover words that are identical in form though not in meaning. They can arise from shared spelling, shared pronunciation, or both.

Two common subtypes help describe the shared-form phenomenon. Homographs are words that have the same spelling, regardless of how they are pronounced. If a pair of homographs is pronounced differently, they are sometimes called heteronyms. Homophones are words that sound alike but may differ in spelling and meaning. In many cases a word can be both a homograph and a homophone with another word, forming a true homonym pair.

Examples illustrate the distinctions. Bank (a financial institution) and bank (the side of a river) share spelling and pronunciation but different meanings, a straightforward homonym. Lead (to guide) and lead (the metal) are spelled the same but pronounced differently, a heterographic case of homographs. Bear (the animal) and bare (uncovered) are pronounced the same but spelled differently, a homophonic pair with different meanings.

In language use, homonymy creates ambiguity that context usually resolves. In lexicography, distinctions between polysemy (related senses of a single word) and homonymy (unrelated senses) are important. In natural language processing, disambiguation techniques are employed to determine which sense applies in a given context.