Chapter # 3
Homophones
Homophones are words that have exactly the same sound (pronunciation) but different meanings and (usually) spelling.
For example, the following two words have the same sound, but different meanings and spelling:
In the next example, the two words have the same sound and spelling, but different meanings:
Usually homophones are in groups of two (our, hour), but very occasionally they can be in groups of three (to, too, two) or even four. If we take our "bear" example, we can add another word to the group"
Quote:
The word homophone is made from two combining forms:
homo- (from the Greek word "homos", meaning "same"
-phone (from the Greek word "phone", meaning "voice" or "sound"
You will see many other English words using one or other of these combining forms.
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The following list of 70 groups of homophones contains only the most common homophones, using relatively well-known words. These are headwords only. No inflections (such as third person singular "s" or noun plurals) are included.
air _______ heir
aisle _______ isle
ante- _______ anti-
eye _______ I
bare _______ bear _______ bear
be _______ bee
brake _______ break
buy _______ by
cell _______ sell
cent _______ scent
cereal _______ serial
coarse _______ course
complement _______ compliment
dam _______ damn
dear _______ deer
die _______ dye
fair _______ fare
fir _______ fur
flour _______ flower
for _______ four
hair _______ hare
heal _______ heel
hear _______ here
him _______ hymn
hole _______ whole
hour _______ our
idle _______ idol
in _______ inn
knight _______ night
knot _______ not
know _______ no
made _______ maid
mail _______ male
meat _______ meet
morning _______ mourning
none _______ nun
oar _______ or
one _______ won
pair _______ pear
peace _______ piece
plain _______ plane
poor _______ pour
pray _______ prey
principal _______ principle
profit _______ prophet
real _______ reel
right _______ write
root _______ route
sail _______ sale
sea _______ see
seam _______ seem
sight _______ site
sew _______ so _______ sow
shore _______ sure
sole _______ soul
some _______ sum
son _______ sun
stair _______ stare
stationary _______ stationery
steal _______ steel
suite _______ sweet
tail _______ tale
their _______ there
to _______ too _______ two
toe _______ tow
waist _______ waste
wait _______ weight
way _______ weigh
weak _______ week
wear _______ where
In a few cases, a third homophone, although possible, has not been included for simplicity. Different varieties and accents of English may produce variations in some of these pronunciations. The homophones listed here are based on British English