Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/english-orthography

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

List of English homographs

None


Summary

None

Homographs are words with the same spelling but having more than one meaning. Homographs may be pronounced the same (homophones), or they may be pronounced differently (heteronyms, also known as heterophones).

Some homographs are nouns or adjectives when the accent is on the first syllable, and verbs when it is on the second. When the prefix "re-" is added to a monosyllabic word, the word gains currency both as a noun and as a verb.

Most of the pairs listed below are closely related: for example, "absent" as a noun meaning "missing", and as a verb meaning "to make oneself missing". There are also many cases in which homographs are of an entirely separate origin, or whose meanings have diverged to the point that present-day speakers have little historical understanding: for example, "bat". Many, though not all of these, have first syllables that evolved from Latin. Also, some words only exhibit stress alternation in certain dialects of English. For a list of homographs with different pronunciations (heteronyms) see Heteronym (linguistics).

A

  • absent
  • accent
  • action
  • adder
  • address
  • advocate
  • affect
  • agape
  • Albanian
  • alternate
  • an
  • analyses
  • anon
  • appropriate
  • as
  • ash
  • attribute
  • axes

B

  • back
  • balance
  • ball
  • balls
  • bank
  • bar
  • barb
  • bark
  • barrow
  • bass
  • bat
  • battery
  • bay
  • bear
  • been
  • billet
  • bimonthly
  • biomed
  • biot
  • bleach
  • bone
  • bot
  • bougie
  • bound
  • bow
  • brace
  • brilliant
  • broke
  • buck
  • buffalo
  • buffet
  • building
  • bunny

C

  • cab
  • calculus
  • can
  • canon
  • capital
  • carp
  • celibate
  • certain
  • chad
  • chap
  • character
  • change
  • chest
  • chile
  • china
  • chuck
  • cleave
  • clerical
  • clip
  • close
  • clove
  • club
  • colon
  • coma
  • combat
  • combine
  • commune
  • con
  • console
  • contact
  • content
  • contest
  • contract
  • converse
  • convert
  • cool
  • cot
  • cow
  • crane
  • cuff
  • cup

D

  • dab
  • danish
  • damper
  • date
  • dear
  • decrease
  • default
  • degree
  • deliberate
  • demean
  • den
  • desert
  • die
  • discharge
  • discount
  • dismiss
  • dismount
  • display
  • dock
  • does
  • doing
  • done
  • dove
  • down
  • drain
  • drawer
  • dub
  • duck
  • dummy
  • duplicate

E

  • effect
  • egg
  • eh
  • elaborate
  • engage
  • entrance
  • es
  • even
  • evening
  • excuse
  • exploit
  • extract

F

  • fabric
  • fall
  • fan
  • fairly
  • file
  • finance
  • fine
  • firm
  • fish
  • fit
  • flatter
  • flip
  • float
  • fluid
  • flush
  • fly
  • float
  • foo
  • foot
  • football field
  • for
  • found
  • frail
  • funny

G

  • gain
  • gas
  • gay
  • Georgia
  • girt
  • glower
  • go
  • gomer
  • gorge
  • grail
  • grate
  • grave
  • guilt
  • gyp
  • gyro

H

  • hallow
  • handy
  • harbor
  • hard
  • het
  • hew
  • hex
  • hive
  • hoard
  • hoe
  • hone

I

  • impact
  • implant
  • import
  • impound
  • inch
  • incline
  • inclined
  • increase
  • insert
  • insult
  • integral
  • intercept
  • interchange
  • intestine
  • intimate
  • into
  • intrigue
  • invalid
  • invite
  • iris

J

  • jam
  • jerry
  • jersey
  • just

K

  • kind
  • knot

L

  • la
  • lair
  • lake
  • land
  • landed
  • lap
  • last
  • lay
  • layer
  • le
  • lead
  • learned
  • leave
  • leaves
  • Lebanon
  • leer
  • left
  • letter
  • lie
  • light
  • lighter
  • limp
  • lit
  • lithe
  • live
  • lo
  • log
  • lose
  • lumber

M

  • mali
  • manga
  • manifest
  • mark
  • mash
  • mass
  • mat
  • match
  • mate
  • may
  • mean
  • median
  • mind
  • mint
  • minute
  • misled
  • mister
  • modal
  • mode
  • model
  • mold
  • mole
  • moped
  • mora
  • mortar
  • mot
  • mother
  • mould
  • mouse
  • mow
  • murder
  • murk

N

  • nail
  • nait
  • nappy
  • natural
  • note
  • notice
  • novel
  • number
  • nut

O

  • obituary
  • object
  • objective
  • obtuse
  • odd
  • offense
  • oke
  • ole
  • one
  • ought
  • overcount
  • overlay
  • overlook

P

  • palm
  • park
  • patient
  • pawn
  • peak
  • pen
  • pencil
  • perfect
  • perfume
  • permit
  • pervert
  • pitch
  • pin
  • plain
  • plane
  • plaster
  • play
  • plight
  • polish
  • polo
  • pop
  • portmanteau
  • possess
  • pound
  • predate
  • present
  • pretty
  • prize
  • proceeds
  • progress
  • project
  • prop
  • protest
  • puck
  • pupil
  • purpose
  • pussy
  • putting

Q

  • quail
  • quarry
  • quarter

R

  • racket
  • rail
  • rank
  • read
  • reading
  • rear
  • rebel
  • recall
  • recap
  • recess
  • record
  • redress
  • reed
  • refund
  • refuse
  • regress
  • reject
  • relapse
  • remake
  • research
  • resent
  • reservation
  • resume
  • retake
  • retard
  • retract
  • revolt
  • rick
  • riddle
  • right
  • ring
  • rip
  • rock
  • rode
  • roll
  • rose
  • round
  • rout
  • row
  • ruler

S

  • sally
  • saw
  • scale
  • scared
  • school
  • seal
  • seam
  • second
  • seer
  • separate
  • sewer
  • sheer
  • short
  • shorts
  • show
  • shower
  • sign
  • sink
  • skied
  • sky
  • slack
  • slash
  • slip
  • smelt
  • solar
  • SOS
  • sow
  • spanging
  • spelt
  • spirit
  • spoke
  • spring
  • stand
  • staunch
  • stone
  • stoop
  • story
  • straight
  • subject
  • sum
  • survey
  • suspect
  • swede

T

  • taint
  • tally
  • tang
  • tatty
  • tear
  • the
  • theory
  • they
  • tie
  • tiff
  • tire
  • toll
  • tongs
  • too
  • top
  • train
  • transfer
  • transform
  • transplant
  • transport
  • transpose
  • tray
  • type

U

  • undercount
  • unionized
  • update
  • uplift
  • upset

V

  • venery
  • virus

W

  • wane
  • Washington
  • waste
  • watch
  • wave
  • wax
  • weed
  • were
  • wicked
  • widget
  • wild
  • wilt
  • win
  • wind
  • window
  • wither
  • wound

Y

  • yard
  • ye
  • yeller
  • you
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about List of English homographs — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report