Homonymy

In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either homographs—words that mean different things but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation)—or homophones—words that mean different things but have the same pronunciation (regardless of spelling). Using this definition, the words row , row and row are homonyms because they are homographs (though only the first two are homo). So are the words see and sea , because they are homophones (though not homo).

language-based puzzle in English

Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, morpheme, word, or phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is the opposite of monosemy, which denotes a word with a single meaning.

thumb|400px|Venn diagram showing the relationships between homophones (blue circle) and related linguistic concepts

thumb|400px|Venn diagram showing the relationships between homographs (yellow) and related linguistic concepts|class=skin-invert-image

In linguistics and philosophy, a vague predicate is one which gives rise to borderline cases. For example, the English adjective "tall" is vague since it is not clearly true or false for someone of middling height. By contrast, the word "prime" is not vague since every number is definitively either prime or not. Vagueness is commonly diagnosed by a predicate's ability to give rise to the sorites paradox. Vagueness is separate from ambiguity, in which an expression has multiple denotations. For instance the word "bank" is ambiguous since it can refer either to a river bank or to a financial ins

Congolese student

word that is written identically but has a different pronunciation and meaning

A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) when it is capitalized; the capitalization usually applies due to one form being a proper noun or eponym. It is a portmanteau of the word capital with the suffix -onym. A capitonym is a form of homograph and – when the two forms are pronounced differently – is also a form of heteronym. In situations where both words should be capitalized (such as the beginning of a sentence), there will be nothing to distinguish between them except the context in which they are used.