Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘capitonym’.
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Word Words
This used to be my nym list, but there are so many words about words, I think it's time to expand and open.
acronym, antonym, aptronym, autoantonym, autonym, bacronym, capitonym, contranym, contronym, eponym, exonym, heteronym and 120 more...
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Wordplay & Pun
wordplay, pound, conceit, clinch, joke, quibble, equivoque, double-entendre, quillet, calembour, carriwitchet, paranomasia and 89 more...
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Linguistic Terms
Words that (mostly) only linguists know.
arpabet, protologism, diacritic, macron, macaronic, capitonym, grapheme, boustrophedon, allograph, analphabetic, idiomatic, portmanteau and 39 more...
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Nyms
synonym, antonym, eudonym, retronym, homonym, womonym, ananym, aptronym, autoantonym, bacronym, capitonym, endonym and 16 more...
ruzuzu Oh, yay! Thanks to Wiktionary, we finally have an official definition for capitonym:
"Wiktionary (1 definition)–noun
(linguistics) A word that changes sound and meaning when the case is changed; a case-sensitive word."
The fox was right (of course)!*
*But I'm still going to pronounce lower-cased "capitonym" as captionym. (It's too late--I've already recorded it.) See Chile. Nov 5, 2010
ruzuzu See usage note on Chile. Mar 6, 2010
sionnach Not to be a contrarian or anything, but I always believed that, for a word to be a capitonym, both the meaning *and the pronunciation* had to change depending on capitalization.
Thus, reading and polish qualify, but john, for instance, does not. Nov 15, 2007
skipvia It means you're just not a typie. Nov 15, 2007
mollusque Does that mean I have to make up a definition for "pointsettia"? As soon as I entered it I saw my typo, but I just tagged it as a misspelling. Nov 15, 2007
reesetee Skipvia, apparently you haven't attended the University of Madeupical Etymology. There's still time to enroll! Nov 15, 2007
john skipvia... shhhh... just make up a definition, pretend you meant it! See captionym for my attempt. Nov 14, 2007
skipvia It's capitonym. Captionym is not a word. I mistyped the word originally and deleted it immediately when I realized my mistake. It's still showing up, however.
I hereby renounce all claim to being a Wordie. Nov 14, 2007
chained_bear Not to be a killjoy, but... is this capitonym, or captionym? (The pronuncation is different depending on where the I is.) Nov 14, 2007
skipvia Words that have a different meaning depending on capitalization, such as polish and Polish. Nov 14, 2007