Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One of two or more words that have identical spellings but different meanings and pronunciations, such as row (a series of objects arranged in a line), pronounced (rō), and row (a fight), pronounced (rou).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A word having a different sound and meaning from another, but the same spelling, as lead, conduct, and lead, a metal: distinguished from homonym in a narrow sense—that is, a word having the same sound as another, but not the same spelling.
- n. A different name of the same thing; a name in one language precisely translating a name in another language; a linguistic synonym, having literally the same meaning as some other word of another language.
Wiktionary
- n. linguistics A word having the same spelling as another, but a different pronunciation and meaning.
- n. literature A fictitious character created by an author for the purpose of writing in a different style.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. That which is heteronymous; a thing having a different name or designation from some other thing; -- opposed to
homonym .
WordNet 3.0
- n. two words are heteronyms if they are spelled the same way but differ in pronunciation
Etymologies
- Coined around 1900, either from hetero- (“different”) + -onym (“name”) or from Ancient Greek ἑτερώνυμος (heterōnumos), or perhaps both. (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from heteronymous. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A heteronym is a homograph with differing meaning and pronunciation.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Why Do “We Need a Good, Violent Movie About Salamis”?
“Their stories were varied enough that some of their pennames conveyed a "heteronym," a term coined by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa who wrote his poetry and prose under a variety of pen names.”
Antiquarian Weird Tales: Our Pulp Fiction Heritage and the Significance of Moldering Magazines
“Interesting that the homograph and heteronym pages missed a few, like Nice/nice.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Why Do “We Need a Good, Violent Movie About Salamis”?
“Also, can you imagine this ad featuring, say, a male basketball player and the phrase “unstoppable charm”? heteronym 11:50 am on February 19, 2009 | # | Reply”
“Neither's completely perfect for instance a homograph doesn't imply that the pronunciation is different and the heteronym doesn't imply that the meaning need be different.”
“Thus the lines and philosophical essays he attributed to himself (many of them rather bad) also belong to a heteronym.”
“Carl Withey Elbridge, New York Donald Drury Long Beach, California A Harvest of Heteronyms Try these out on the first ten people you meet: (1) homonym, (2) homograph, (3) heteronym.”
“The former gives heteronym as "a word with the same spelling as another but with a different meaning and pronunciation (Ex: tear, drop of water from the eye, tear, to rip)"; the latter says,”
“My guess is that all ten of them will know homonym, fewer than half will be familiar with homograph, and possibly one or two may recognize heteronym.”
“It’s not like finding some trappings for some culture funny is boiling that culture down to something to be laughed at, and it’s not disrespectful to embrace and be amused by kitsch, whether it’s your own or someone else’s. heteronym 1:54 pm on February 3, 2009 | # | Reply”
“REDNECK” WEDDING CAKES AND GETTING MARRIED RIGHT » Sociological Images
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘heteronym’.
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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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phrontistery - h
from phrontistery.info
habanera, habile, habiliment, hackle, hackney, hadal, hame, hank, hansom, hapax, hark, harl and 568 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Wordplay & Pun
wordplay, pound, conceit, clinch, joke, quibble, equivoque, double-entendre, quillet, calembour, carriwitchet, paranomasia and 90 more...
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WF - Word Formation Words
Classes of words and types of word formation
sniglet, protologism, portmanteau word, blend, telescope-word, frankenword, double-entendre, compound, derivative, palindrome, spoonerism, malapropism and 152 more...
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Names for Names
Source and definitions: http://phrontistery.info/name.html
acronym, allonym, ananym, anonym, antonym, aptronym, autonym, caconym, cohyponym, cryptonym, dionym, eponym and 26 more...
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-onym, -onymous, -onymic
denoting or relating to names
acronym, synonymous, patronymic, antonym, ananym, anonym, aptronym, autonym, caconym, cohyponym, cryptonym, dionym and 29 more...
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Nyms
synonym, antonym, eudonym, retronym, homonym, womonym, ananym, aptronym, autoantonym, bacronym, capitonym, endonym and 16 more...
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gcherches's Words
serendipity, roadrunner, inner child, coagulant, esquire, vicissitude, idiot savant, mitigation, affirmation, affirmative, diatribe, affirmative action and 185 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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Wordnik Notebooks
All the words from the cover of the Wordnik notebook.
A few words appear twice: frass, cruet, luna, thalweg, and possibly some more.
Careful: Contains spoilers!spilth, frass, fomite, rux, worricow, alizarin, mundungus, parthenocarpy, jib, whinyard, weisure, nimiety and 217 more...
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Phrases and words I didn't know
give up the ghost, ninja'd, coal-hole, hotting up, chancer, clave, salaryman, turf accountant, cremains, autoclave, hummingbird mind, gank and 175 more...
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botello360's list
ruminate, steel, bifurcation, arrivederci, portage, tactile, ruminant, rift, anecdotage, diacritic, cud, hull and 399 more...
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Words about words
Most of these describe word patterns or relationships between words.
panvocalic, palindrome, anagram, transposition, antigram, reversal, isogram, alternade, trinade, beheadment, decapitation, apheresis and 149 more...
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Grammar
Terms that would be good to know.
homonym, womonym, aptronym, autoantonym, bacronym, capitonym, exonym, heteronym, oronym, patronym, pseudonym, retronym and 62 more...
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Construction
Words around the construction of words
morpheme, riming, phoneme, assonance, euphony, alliteration, rhyme, logos, etymology, similitude, language, syntactic and 87 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for heteronym.
jodi Useful for puns. See http://www.heteronym.com/ May 11, 2011
ruzuzu Cf. capitonym. Nov 5, 2010