Homonymia

Homonymia, also known as homonymy, is a linguistic phenomenon in which a single lexical form corresponds to two or more lexemes with distinct meanings. The overlap occurs in form (spelling and often pronunciation) while the meanings differ, and the different senses may or may not share a common origin. In some frameworks, homonymia is contrasted with polysemy, where related meanings arise from a single underlying sense.

The term derives from Greek roots: homo- meaning "same" and onoma meaning "name." This reflects the idea that one form bears multiple names or identities in language. The concept is frequently discussed together with the related notions of homographs and homophones. Homonyms are words that share both form and pronunciation but have unrelated meanings. Homographs are words that share the same spelling, which may also share pronunciation or have different pronunciations. Homophones are words that share the same pronunciation but may differ in spelling. The boundaries among these categories can blur, and some descriptions treat homonymia as an umbrella term for all such form-based ambiguities.

Examples widely cited in discussions of homonymia include bark (the sound a dog makes) and bark (the outer surface of a tree), and bank (a financial institution) and bank (a riverbank). An example of a heteronym, a subtype of homographs, is lead (to guide) versus lead (the metal), which differ in pronunciation.

In linguistics, homonymia informs lexicography, language teaching, and natural language processing by highlighting the need for contextual disambiguation.