View source for Homophone

{{Short description|Word that has identical pronunciation as another word, but differs in meaning or spelling}}
{{About|the term in linguistics||Homophony (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Heterography|the practice of writing one language in the script of another|Garshunography}}
{{Distinguish|Homophobe}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
[[File:Homograph homophone venn diagram.png|thumb|400px|[[Venn diagram]] showing the relationships between ''homophones'' (blue circle) and related linguistic concepts]]
{{linguistics}}

A '''homophone''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɒ|m|ə|f|oʊ|n|,_|ˈ|h|oʊ|m|ə|-}}){{efn|name=etymology}} is a word that is [[Pronunciation|pronounced]] the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be [[Spelling|spelled]] the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, as in ''rain'', ''reign'', and ''rein''. The term ''homophone'' sometimes applies to units longer or shorter than words, for example a phrase, letter, or groups of letters which are pronounced the same as a counterpart. Any unit with this property is said to be ''homophonous'' ({{IPAc-en|h|ə|ˈ|m|ɒ|f|ən|ə|s}}).

Homophones that are spelled the same are both [[homograph]]s and [[homonym]]s. For example, the word ''read'', in "He is well ''read''" and in "Yesterday, I ''read'' that book".{{efn|
According to the strict sense of homonyms as words with the same spelling ''and'' pronunciation; however, homonyms according to the loose sense common in nontechnical contexts are words with the same spelling ''or'' pronunciation, in which case all homophones are also homonyms.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Homonym |dictionary=Random House Unabridged Dictionary |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homonym?r=66 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083418/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homonym?r=66 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |via=Dictionary.com}}</ref>
}}

Homophones that are spelled differently are also called '''heterographs''', e.g. ''to'', ''too'', and ''two''.

==Wordplay and games==
Homophones are often used to create [[pun]]s and to deceive the reader (as in [[crossword|crossword puzzles]]) or to suggest multiple meanings. The last usage is common in [[poetry]] and creative [[literature]]. An example of this is seen in [[Dylan Thomas]]'s radio play ''Under Milk Wood'': "The shops in mourning" where ''mourning'' can be heard as ''mourning'' or ''morning''. Another vivid example is [[Thomas Hood]]'s use of ''birth'' and ''berth'' as well as ''told'' and ''toll'd'' (tolled) in his poem "Faithless Sally Brown":

: His death, which happen'd in his ''berth'',
: At forty-odd befell:
: They went and ''told'' the sexton, and
: The sexton ''toll'd'' the bell.

In some [[Accent (sociolinguistics)|accents]], various sounds have [[phonemic differentiation|merged]] in that they are no longer distinctive, and thus words that differ only by those sounds in an accent that maintains the distinction (a [[minimal pair]]) are homophonous in the accent with the merger. Some examples from [[English language|English]] are:

* ''pin'' and ''pen'' in many [[Southern American English|southern American accents]] 
* ''by'' and ''buy'' 
* ''merry'', ''marry'', and ''Mary'' in most American accents 
* The pairs ''do'' and ''due'' as well as ''forward'' and ''foreword'' are homophonous in most American accents but not in most English accents 
* The pairs ''talk'' and ''torque'' as well as ''court'' and ''caught'' are distinguished in [[rhotic and non-rhotic accents|rhotic]] accents, such as [[Scottish English]], and most dialects of American English, but are homophones in some [[rhotic and non-rhotic accents|non-rhotic]] accents, such as British [[Received Pronunciation]] 

Wordplay is particularly common in English because the multiplicity of linguistic influences offers considerable complication in spelling and meaning and pronunciation compared with other languages.

[[Malapropism]]s, which often create a similar comic effect, are usually near-homophones. See also [[Eggcorn]].

===Same-sounding phrases===
During the 1980s, an attempt was made to promote a distinctive term for same-sounding multiple words or phrases, by referring to them as "oronyms",{{efn|
The name ''oronym'' was first proposed and advocated by [[Gyles Brandreth]] in his book ''The Joy of Lex'' (1980), and such use was also accepted in the [[BBC]] programme ''Never Mind the Full Stops'', which featured Brandreth as a guest.
}}
but since the term [[Toponymy#Toponymic typology|oronym]] was already well established in [[linguistics]] as an [[Onomastics|onomastic]] designation for a class of [[Toponymy|toponymic]] features (names of mountains, hills, etc.),{{sfn|Room|1996|p=75}} the alternative use of the same term was not well-accepted in scholarly literature.{{sfn|Stewart|2015|p=91, 237}}

==In various languages==

===English===
There are online lists of multinyms. In English, concerning groups of homophones (excluding proper nouns), there are approximately 88&nbsp;triplets, 24&nbsp;quadruplets, 2&nbsp;quintuplets, 1&nbsp;sextet, 1&nbsp;septet, and 1&nbsp; octet. The octet is:

: ''raise'', ''rays'', ''rase'', ''raze'', ''rehs'', ''réis'', ''reais'', ''res''

Other than the common words ''raise'' and ''rays'', this octet includes

* ''raze'' – a verb meaning "to demolish, level to the ground" or "to scrape as if with a razor"
* ''rase'' – an archaic verb meaning "to erase"
* ''rehs'' – the plural of ''reh'', a mixture of sodium salts found as an efflorescence in India
* ''res'' – the plural of [[re (musical note)|''re'']], a name for one step of the musical scale; obsolete legal term for "the matter" or "incident"
* ''reais'' – the plural of real, the currency unit of Brazil
* ''réis'' - the plural of real, the former currency unit of Brazil

If proper names are included, then a possible nonet would be:
* ''[[Ayr]]'' – a town in [[Scotland]]
* ''[[River Aire|Aire]]'' – a river in [[Yorkshire]]
* ''Eyre'' – legal term and various geographic locations 
* ''heir'' – one who inherits
* ''air'' – the ubiquitous atmospheric gas that people breathe; a type of musical tune 
* ''ere'' – poetic / archaic "before" 
* ''e'er'' – poetic "ever" (some speakers)
* ''[[hectare|are]]'' – a [[metric system|metric unit]] of area, usually found in ''hectare''<ref>{{cite web |author=Burkardt, J. |title=Multinyms |series=Fun / wordplay |publisher=[[Florida State University]] |department=Department of Scientific Computing |url=http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/multinyms.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160825095711/http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/multinyms.html |archive-date=2016-08-25}}</ref>

Certain word pairs that were historically variant spellings of the same words, but eventually standardized as distinct homophonous words by mere spelling, include:
*''flour''<ref>{{cite web|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|title=flour|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/flour#etymonline_v_8923}}</ref> and ''flower'':<ref>{{cite web|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|title=flower|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/flower#etymonline_v_8927}}</ref> ''flour'' is the older spelling used for the later meaning ("wheat powder," supposedly the "finest" part, the "bloom" of a meal;<ref name=oxford>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''</ref> compare [[French language|French]] ''[[wikt:fr:fleur de farine#Français|fleur de farine]]'', literally "flower of flour"); ''flower'' is the later spelling used for the original meaning ("bloom"). The verb ''flourish'' ("blossom") is spelt more similarly to the noun ''flour'' ("wheat powder").
*''discrete''<ref>{{cite web|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|title=discrete|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/discrete}}</ref> and ''discreet'':<ref>{{cite web|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|title=discreet|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/discreet}}</ref> ''discrete'' maintains the original meaning ("separate"); ''discreet'' is used for the later meaning ("prudent"), although the noun ''discretion''  ("prudence") looks more similar to ''discrete''. The split in spelling occurred after during the late 16th century when ''discreet'' was favored for the popular meaning of "prudent," while ''discrete'' is favored in academic contexts.
*''passed'' and ''[[past]]'':<ref>{{cite web|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|title=past|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/past#etymonline_v_7298}}</ref> ''past'' was one of the many variants of the [[past participle]] ''passed'' of the [[Middle English]] verb ''[[wikt:passen#Middle English|passen]]'' (whence [[Modern English]] ''pass'').<ref name=oxford/> During the 14th century, ''past'' was used specifically as an adjective and preposition, and during the 15th century as a noun by [[Ellipsis (linguistics)|ellipsis]] with the earlier adjective.<ref name=oxford/> Compare the [[Romance languages|Romance]] [[cognate]]s, French ''[[wikt:passé#French|passé]]'', [[Italian language|Italian]] ''[[wikt:passato#Italian|passato]]'', [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ''[[wikt:passado#Portuguese|passado]]'' and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''[[wikt:pasado#Spanish|pasado]]'', all of which function as past participles, adjectives and nouns.
*''born''<ref>{{cite web|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|title=born|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/born#etymonline_v_15631}}</ref> and ''borne'': these were variant spellings of the same past participle of ''bear'', whose general meaning is "carry", but with one specific derived meaning, "birth". The distinction between ''born'' for "birthed" and ''borne'' for "carried" came to be sometime during the 17th century. Compare ''sworne'', ''torne'' and ''worne'',<ref name=oxford/> variants of ''sworn'', ''torn'' and ''worn'', that did not survive into present-day English.

''Its'' was merely the genitive form of ''it'' and derived by adding the apostrophe and ''s'', thus originally spelt ''it's'', making it also a [[homograph]] of ''it's'' (contraction of ''it is/has''). The genitive ''it's'' was retained even toward the early 19th century.<ref name=oxford/> The spelling of ''aisle''<ref>{{cite web|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|title=aisle|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/aisle#etymonline_v_8084}}</ref> (from [[Middle French]] ''[[wikt:aisle#Middle French|aisle]]'', [[Old French]] ''[[wikt:aile#Old French|aile]]'', [[Latin]] ''[[wikt:ala#Latin|ālam]]'') was altered with the [[silent letter]] ''s'' due to its historical homophony with ''isle'' (Old French ''[[wikt:isle#Old French|isle]]'', Latin ''[[wikt:insula#Latin|īnsulam]]'') in both French and English. Spelling alteration (often based on [[etymology]]) can also obscure homophony, such as the case of ''[[wikt:colonel#English|colonel]]'', which prevailed over the historical variant ''coronel'' by the late Modern English period, but which is now still pronounced identically to ''kernel'' as if the ''r'' were still there in the spelling.<ref name=oxford/> The ''ye'' in ''dye'' is purposefully retained in its forms, especially its present participle ''dyeing'', in order to distinguish it from the homophonous ''dying'', which is the present participle of ''die''.

Homophones can arise from borrowed words which end up being pronounced the same in English, such as ''profit'' (ultimately from Latin ''profectus'') and ''prophet'' (ultimately from Greek προφήτης). Sometimes the English words are even homographs, such as ''quarry'' ('stone mine', from Latin ''quadraria'') and ''quarry'' ('thing that is pursued', from Latin ''corata'') or ''[[wikt:policy#Etymology 1|policy]]'' ('[[Policy|way of management]]', ultimately from Greek [[wikt:πολιτεία#Ancient Greek|πολῑτείᾱ]]) and ''[[wikt:policy#Etymology 2|policy]]'' ('[[Insurance policy|insurance contract]]', from Greek [[wikt:ἀπόδειξις#Ancient Greek|ἀπόδειξις]] via Latin ''[[wikt:apodixa#Latin|apodīssa]]'', [[Italian language|Italian]] ''[[wikt:polizza#Italian|polizza]]'' and French ''police'')—<ref>{{cite web|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|title=policy|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/policy#etymonline_v_17569}}</ref>see the discussion of [[English words of Greek origin#Homographs of different origin|English homographs from different Greek origins]]. 

Many words were historically heterophonous, but after historical sound changes, including the [[Great Vowel Shift]] and [[Phonological history of English vowels|various vowel mergers]], they became homophonous. For example, ''ail'' and ''ale'', both pronounced {{IPA|/ɛjl/}} in Modern English, were respectively ''[[wikt:eilen#Middle English|eile(n)]]'' {{IPA|/ˈɛjlə(n)/}} and ''[[wikt:ale#Middle English|ale]]'' {{IPA|/ˈaːlə/}} in Middle English before the Great Vowel Shift. The verbs ''lie'' (past tense and past participle ''lied'') and ''lie'' (past tense ''lay'', past participle ''lain'') used to be ''[[wikt:leogan#Old English|lēogan]]'' {{IPA|[ˈleoːɣɑn]}} and ''[[wikt:licgan#Old English|liċġan]]'' {{IPA|[ˈliddʒɑn]}} in Old English; while ''will'' (past tense ''would'') and ''will'' (past tense and past participle ''willed'') used to be ''[[wikt:willan#Old English|willan]]'' {{IPA|[ˈwiɫɫɑn]}} and ''[[wikt:willian#Old English|willian]]'' {{IPA|[ˈwiɫɫiɑn]}}.

''Ax(e)'' (Middle English ''[[wikt:axen#Middle English|ax(i)e(n)]]'', [[Old English]] ''[[wikt:axian#Old English|āxian]]/[[wikt:acsian#Old English|ācsian]]''), an obsolescent variant of ''ask'' (Middle English ''[[wikt:asken#Middle English|ask(i)e(n)]]'', Old English ''[[wikt:ascian#Old English|āscian]]''), is homophonous with ''[[axe|ax(e)]]'' (cutting tool) in some Scottish accents, but with ''arcs'' in some English accents such as [[Multicultural London English]].<ref>{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nysHgnXx-o|title=Why do people say AKS instead of ASK?|author-first=Geoff|author-last=Lindsey|website=YouTube|date=7 Dec 2022}}</ref>

[[Epenthesis]], which often occurs at the boundary between a [[Nasal consonant|nasal]] and a [[fricative]], can cause some words that are phonemically distinct to become phonetically homophonous. For example, ''assistance'' may be pronounced {{IPA|[əˈsɪstənts]}}, with an additional ''t'' like in ''assistants''.

=== Brazilian Portuguese ===
The Portuguese language has one of the highest numbers of homophones.{{citation needed|date=August 2025}} For example, ''jogo'' 'I throw', 'I play', 'match (sports)', and 'game' (in dialects like Paulistano it is not homophonic, while in Caipira it is).

===German===
There are many homophones in present-day standard German. As in other languages, however, there exists regional and/or individual variation in certain groups of words or in single words, so that the number of homophones varies accordingly. Regional variation is especially common in words that exhibit the long vowels ''ä'' and ''e''. According to the well-known dictionary [[Duden]], these vowels should be distinguished as /ɛ:/ and /e:/, but this is not always the case, so that words like ''Ähre'' (ear of corn) and ''Ehre'' (honor) may or may not be homophones.
Individual variation is shown by a pair like ''Gäste'' (guests) – ''Geste'' (gesture), the latter of which varies between /ˈɡe:stə/ and /ˈɡɛstə/ and by a pair like ''Stiel'' (handle, stalk) – ''Stil'' (style), the latter of which varies between /ʃtiːl/ and /stiːl/.

Besides websites that offer extensive lists of German homophones,<ref>See, e.g. {{cite web |title=Homophone und homonyme im deutschen Homophone |lang=de |website=yumpu.com |url=https://www.yumpu.com/de/document/view/6941949/homophone-und-homonyme-im-deutschen-homophone- |access-date=2020-03-15 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308171812/https://www.yumpu.com/de/document/view/6941949/homophone-und-homonyme-im-deutschen-homophone- |archive-date=2021-03-08}}</ref> there are others which provide numerous sentences with various types of homophones.<ref>See [[Fausto Cercignani]], {{cite web |url=http://sites.unimi.it/austheod/FC_DEUTSCHE_HOMOPHONE.htm |title=Beispielsätze mit deutschen Homophonen |lang=de |trans-title=Example sentences with German homophones |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529060045/https://sites.unimi.it/austheod/FC_DEUTSCHE_HOMOPHONE.htm |archive-date=2020-05-29}}</ref> In the German language homophones occur in more than 200&nbsp;instances. Of these, a few are triples like
* ''Waagen'' (weighing scales) – ''Wagen'' (cart) – ''wagen'' (to dare)
* ''Waise'' (orphan) – ''Weise'' (way, manner) – ''weise'' (wise)
Most are couples like ''lehren'' (to teach) – ''leeren'' (to empty).

=== Spanish ===
Spanish has many homophones, but fewer than English. Some are homonyms, such as ''basta'', which can either mean 'enough' or 'coarse', and some exist because of homophonous letters. For example, the letters ''b'' and ''v'' are pronounced exactly alike, so the words ''basta'' (coarse) and ''vasta'' (vast) are pronounced identically.<ref>{{Cite web |title=51 Spanish Words That Sound Exactly Like Other Spanish Words |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/some-spanish-homophones-3080303 |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref> 

Other homonyms are spelled the same, but mean different things in different genders. For example, the masculine noun ''el capital'' means 'capital' as in 'money', but the feminine noun ''la capital'' means 'capital city'.<ref>{{Cite news |title=37 Spanish Nouns Whose Meanings Change With Gender |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/doubly-gendered-basics-3079264 |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref>

===Japanese===
There are many homophones in Japanese, due to the use of [[Sino-Japanese vocabulary]], where borrowed words and morphemes from Chinese are widely used in Japanese, but many phonemic contrasts, such as the original [[Tones in Chinese|words' tones]], are lost.

An extreme example is the pronunciation {{IPA|[kì̥kóō]}} which, accounting for the "flat" [[Japanese pitch accent|pitch accent]], is used for the following words:
{{div col begin|colwidth=12em}}
* {{lang|ja|機構}} (organization / mechanism)
* {{lang|ja|紀行}} (travelogue)
* {{lang|ja|稀覯}} (rare)
* {{lang|ja|騎行}} (horseback riding)
* {{lang|ja|奇功}} (outstanding achievement)
* {{lang|ja|起稿}} (draft)
* {{lang|ja|奇行}} (eccentricity)
* {{lang|ja|機巧}} (contrivance)
* {{lang|ja|寄港}} (stopping at port)
* {{lang|ja|帰校}} (returning to school)
* {{lang|ja|気功}} (breathing exercise, qigong)
* {{lang|ja|寄稿}} (contribute an article / a written piece)
* {{lang|ja|機甲}} (armor, e.g. of a tank)
* {{lang|ja|帰航}} (homeward voyage)
* {{lang|ja|奇効}} (remarkable effect)
* {{lang|ja|季候}} (season / climate)
* {{lang|ja|気孔}} (stoma)
* {{lang|ja|起工}} (setting to work)
* {{lang|ja|気候}} (climate)
* {{lang|ja|帰港}} (returning to port)
{{div col end}}

Upon adoption from [[Middle Chinese]] into [[Early Middle Japanese]], certain sounds were modified or simplified to match Japanese phonology, causing homophony. For example, in the above list, {{lang|ja|機構}}, {{lang|ja|稀覯}}, {{lang|ja|季候}}, {{lang|ja|気功}}, {{lang|ja|起稿}}, {{lang|ja|帰校}} and {{lang|ja|紀行}} may have been pronounced {{IPA|[kɨj˧ kəw˥˩], [hɨj˧ kəw˥˩], [kwi˥˩ ɦəw˥˩], [kʰɨj˥˩ kəwŋ˧], [kʰɨ˧˥ kaw˧˥], [kuj˧ ɦaɨw˥˩] and [kɨ˧˥ ɦaɨjŋ˧]}} in Middle Chinese, but {{IPA|[kikou], [kikou], [kikou], [kikoũ], [kikau], [kikau] and [kikaũ]}} in Japanese. Furthermore, there were vowel fusions and mergers during [[Late Middle Japanese]] which furthered even more homophony. For example, {{lang|ja|機構}}, {{lang|ja|奇功}}, {{lang|ja|起稿}} and {{lang|ja|紀行}} were once pronounced distinctly as {{IPA|[kikou], [kikoũ], [kikau] and [kikaũ]}}, but now all as {{IPA|[kikoo]}}.

===Korean===
The Korean language contains a combination of words that strictly belong to Korean and words that are [[loanwords]] from Chinese. Due to Chinese being pronounced with varying [[Tone (linguistics)|tones]] and Korean's removal of those tones, and because the modern Korean writing system, Hangeul, has a more finite number of phonemes than, for example, Latin-derived alphabets such as that of English, there are many homonyms with both the same spelling and pronunciation.
For example
* '{{Korean|hangul=화장하다|hanja=化粧하다}}': 'to put on makeup' vs. '{{Korean|hangul=화장하다|hanja=火葬하다|labels=no}}': 'to cremate'
* '{{Korean|hangul=[[wikt:유산|유산]]|hanja=遺産|labels=no}}': 'inheritance' vs. '{{Korean|hangul=유산|hanja=流産|labels=no}}': 'miscarriage'
* '{{Korean|hangul=[[wikt:방구|방구]]|labels=no}}': 'fart' vs. '{{Korean|hangul=방구|hanja=防具|labels=no}}': 'guard'
* '밤[밤ː]': 'chestnut' vs. '밤': 'night'

There are heterographs, but far fewer, contrary to the tendency in English. For example,
* '학문(學問)': 'learning' vs. '항문(肛門)': 'anus'.
Using [[hanja]] ({{Korean|hangul=한자|hanja=漢字|rr=|mr=|labels=no|context=}}), which are [[Chinese characters]], such words are written differently.

As in other languages, Korean homonyms can be used to make puns. The context in which the word is used indicates which meaning is intended by the speaker or writer.

=== Mandarin Chinese ===
Due to phonological constraints in [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] syllables (as Mandarin only allows for an initial consonant, a vowel, and a nasal or retroflex consonant in respective order), there are only a little over 400&nbsp;possible unique syllables that can be produced,<ref>{{cite web |date=2017-07-07 |title=Is there any similarity between Chinese and English? |website=Learn Mandarin Chinese Online |series=Study Online Mandarin Chinese Courses |lang=en-US |url=https://www.newconceptmandarin.com/learn-chinese-blog/similarities-chinese-english/ |access-date=2020-12-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125191859/https://www.newconceptmandarin.com/learn-chinese-blog/similarities-chinese-english/ |archive-date=2021-01-25}}</ref> compared to over 15,831 in the English language.<ref>{{cite web |author=Barker |date=2016-08-22 |title=Syllables |department=Linguistics |publisher=[[New York University]] |url=http://semarch.linguistics.fas.nyu.edu/barker/Syllables/index.txt |access-date=2020-12-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822211027/http://semarch.linguistics.fas.nyu.edu/barker/Syllables/index.txt |archive-date=2016-08-22}}</ref>

Chinese has an entire genre of poems taking advantage of the large amount of homophones called [[one-syllable article]]s, or poems where every single word in the poem is pronounced as the same syllable if tones are disregarded. An example is the ''[[Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den]].''

Like all Chinese languages, Mandarin uses phonemic tones to distinguish homophonic syllables; Mandarin has five tones. A famous example,
* {{translit|cmn|mā}} ({{lang|cmn|妈}}) means "mother"
* {{translit|cmn|má}} ({{lang|cmn|麻}}) means "hemp"
* {{translit|cmn|mă}} ({{lang|cmn|马}}) means "horse"
* {{translit|cmn|mà}} ({{lang|cmn|骂}}) means "scold"
* {{translit|cmn|ma}} ({{lang|cmn|吗}}) is a yes / no question particle

Although all these words consist of the same string of consonants and vowels, the only way to distinguish each of these words audibly is by listening to which tone the word has, and as shown above, saying a consonant-vowel string using a different tone can produce an entirely different word altogether. If tones are included, the number of unique syllables in Mandarin increases to at least 1,522.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

However, even with tones, Mandarin retains a very large amount of homophones. ''Yì'', for example, has at least 125&nbsp;homophones,<ref>{{cite web |last=Chang |first=Chao-Huang |title=Corpus-based adaptation mechanisms for Chinese Homophone disambiguation |url=https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W93-0311.pdf |access-date=2020-12-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414135958/https://www.aclweb.org/anthology/W93-0311.pdf |archive-date=2021-04-14}}</ref> and it is the pronunciation used for [[Chinese characters]] such as 义, 意, 易, 亿, 议, 一, and 已.

There are even place names in China that have identical pronunciations, aside for the difference in tone. For example, there are two neighboring provinces with nearly identical names, [[Shanxi]] ({{lang|cmn|山西}}) and [[Shaanxi]] ({{lang|cmn|陕西}}). The only difference in pronunciation between the two names are the tone in the first syllable (Shanxi is pronounced {{Audio|zh-Shanxi.ogg|{{translit|cmn|Shānxī}}|help=no}} whereas Shaanxi is pronounced {{Audio|zh-Shaanxi.ogg|{{translit|cmn|Shǎnxī}}|help=no}}). As most languages exclude the [[Mandarin tones|tone]] [[Diacritic|diacritics]] when transcribing Chinese place names into their own languages, the only way to visually distinguish the two names is to write Shaanxi in [[Gwoyeu Romatzyh]] [[romanization]]. Otherwise, nearly all other spellings of placenames in mainland China are spelled using [[Pinyin|Hanyu Pinyin]] romanization.

Many scholars believe that the Chinese language did not always have such a large number of homophones and that the phonological structure of Chinese syllables was once more complex, which allowed for a larger amount of possible syllables so that words sounded more distinct from each other.

{{See also|Old Chinese phonology}}

Scholars also believe that Old Chinese had no phonemic tones, but tones emerged in [[Middle Chinese]] to replace sounds that were lost from Old Chinese. Since words in Old Chinese sounded more distinct from each other at this time, it explains why many words in [[Classical Chinese]] consisted of only one syllable. For example, the [[Standard Chinese|Standard Mandarin]] word 狮子(''shīzi'', meaning "lion") was simply 狮 (''shī'') in Classical Chinese, and the Standard Mandarin word 教育 (''jiàoyù,'' "education") was simply 教 (''jiào'') in Classical Chinese.

{{See also|Classical Chinese lexicon}}

Since many Chinese words became homophonic over the centuries, it became difficult to distinguish words when listening to documents written in Classical Chinese being read aloud. One-syllable articles like those mentioned above are evidence for this. For this reason, many one-syllable words from Classical Chinese became two-syllable words, like the words mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Even with the existence of two- or two-syllable words, however, there are even multisyllabic homophones. And there are also a lot of harmonic words. The cultural phenomenon brought about by such linguistic characteristics is that from ancient times to the present day, people have been keen to play games and jokes with homophonic and harmonic words. In modern life, the influence of homophones can be seen everywhere, from CCTV evening sketch programmes, folk art performances and popular folk life. In recent years, receiving the influence of Internet pop culture, young people have invented more new and popular homophones.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-05 |title=Mandarin Homophones Explained: Enhance Your Chinese Language Skills |url=https://chinesevoyage.org/mandarin-homophones-explained/ |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=chinesevoyage.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Homophones even play a major role in daily life throughout China, including Spring Festival traditions, which gifts to give (and not give), political criticism, texting, and many other aspects of people's lives.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chinese Homophones and Chinese Customs |website=yoyochinese.com |type=blog |url=https://www.yoyochinese.com/blog/Chinese-Homophones-Chinese-Customs |access-date=2020-12-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210409045334/https://www.yoyochinese.com/blog/Chinese-Homophones-Chinese-Customs |archive-date=2021-04-09}}</ref>

{{See also|Homophonic puns in Standard Chinese}}

Another complication that arises within the Chinese language is that in non-rap songs, tones are disregarded in favor of maintaining [[melody]] in the song.<ref>{{cite web |title=How do people sing in a tonal language? |date=2016-09-08 |website=Diplomatic Language Services |url=https://dlsdc.com/blog/how-do-people-sing-in-a-tonal-language/ |access-date=2020-12-30 |url-status=live |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128111951/https://dlsdc.com/blog/how-do-people-sing-in-a-tonal-language/ |archive-date=2020-11-28}}</ref> While in most cases, the lack of phonemic tones in music does not cause confusion among native speakers, there are instances where [[pun]]s may arise.

Subtitles in Chinese characters are usually displayed on music videos and in songs sung on movies and TV shows to disambiguate the song's lyrics.

=== Russian ===
The presence of homophones in the [[Russian language]] is associated in some cases with the phenomenon of devoicing of consonants at the end of words and before another consonant sound, in other cases with the reduction of vowels in an unstressed position. Examples include: поро'''г''' — п'''о'''ро'''к''' — п'''а'''рок, лу'''г''' — лу'''к''', пло'''д''' — пло'''т''', ту'''ш''' — ту'''шь''', падё'''ж''' — падё'''шь''', ба'''л''' — ба'''лл''', ко'''сн'''ый — ко'''стн'''ый, пр'''е'''дать — пр'''и'''дать, к'''о'''мпания — к'''а'''мпания, к'''о'''сатка — к'''а'''сатка, прив'''и'''дение — прив'''е'''дение, ко'''т''' — ко'''д''', пру'''т''' — пру'''д''', т'''и'''трация — т'''е'''трация, компл'''и'''мент — компл'''е'''мент.

Also, in reflexive verbs, the infinitive and the present (or simple future) tense of the third person of the same verb are often pronounced the same way (in writing they differ in the presence or absence of the letter [[Soft sign|Ь]] (soft sign) before the postfix -ся): (надо) решиться — (он) решится, (хочу) строиться — (дом) строится, (металл может) гнуться — (деревья) гнутся, (должен) вернуться — (они) вернутся. This often leads to incorrect spelling of reflexive verbs ending with -ться/-тся: in some cases, Ь is mistakenly placed before -ся in the present tense of the third person, while in others, on the contrary, Ь before -ся is missing in the infinitive form.

=== Vietnamese ===
It is estimated that there are approximately 4,500 to 4,800&nbsp;possible syllables in Vietnamese, depending on the dialect.<ref>{{Cite web |title=vietnamese tone marks pronunciation |website=pronunciator.com |url=https://pronunciator.com/rj7v7/aac5d9-vietnamese-tone-marks-pronunciation |access-date=2021-02-05 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518011953/https://www.pronunciator.com/rj7v7/aac5d9-vietnamese-tone-marks-pronunciation |archive-date=2022-05-18}}</ref> The exact number is difficult to calculate because there are significant differences in pronunciation among the dialects. For example, the graphemes and digraphs "d", "gi", and "r" are all pronounced /z/ in the Hanoi dialect, so the words ''dao'' (knife), ''giao'' (delivery), and ''rao'' (advertise) are all pronounced /zaw˧/. In Saigon dialect, however, the graphemes and digraphs "d", "gi", and "v" are all pronounced /j/, so the words ''dao'' (knife), ''giao'' (delivery), and ''vao'' (enter) are all pronounced /jaw˧/.

Pairs of words that are homophones in one dialect may not be homophones in the other. For example, the words ''sắc'' (sharp) and ''xắc'' (dice) are both pronounced /săk˧˥/ in Hanoi dialect, but pronounced /ʂăk˧˥/ and /săk˧˥/ in Saigon dialect respectively.
{{See also|Vietnamese phonology}}

==Psychological research==

===Pseudo-homophones===
Pseudo-homophones are [[pseudoword]]s that are [[phonetic]]ally identical to a word. For example, groan/grone and crane/crain are pseudo-homophone pairs, whereas plane/plain is a homophone pair since both letter strings are recognised words. Both types of pairs are used in [[lexical decision task]]s to investigate [[word recognition]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Martin, R.C. |year=1982 |title=The pseudohomophone effect: The role of visual similarity in non-word decisions |journal=Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology |volume=34A |issue=Pt 3 |pages=395–409|doi=10.1080/14640748208400851 |pmid=6890218 |s2cid=41699283 }}</ref>

===Use as ambiguous information===
Homophones, specifically heterographs, where one spelling is of a threatening nature and one is not (''e.g.'' slay/sleigh, war/wore) have been used in studies of [[anxiety]] as a test of cognitive models that those with high anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous information in a threatening manner.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Mogg, K. |author2=Bradley, B.P. |author3=Miller, T. |author4=Potts, H. |author5=Glenwright, J. |author6=Kentish, J. |year=1994 |title=Interpretation of homophones related to threat: Anxiety or response bias effects? |journal=Cognitive Therapy and Research |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=461–477 |doi=10.1007/BF02357754|s2cid=36150769 }}</ref>

==See also==
* "[[Do-Re-Mi]]", a [[show tune]] from ''[[The Sound of Music]]'' that uses homophones (e.g. "doe", "ray", "me") to explain the notes in the [[solfège]] scale
* [[Homograph]]
* [[Homonym]]
* [[Synonym]]
* [[Dajare]], a type of Japanese wordplay involving similar-sounding phrases
* [[Perfect rhyme]]

;Wiktionary
* [[wikt:Appendix:List of dialect-independent homophones|List of dialect-independent homophones]]
* [[wikt:Appendix:List of dialect-dependent homophones|List of dialect-dependent homophones]]

==Footnotes==
{{notelist|refs=
{{efn|name=etymology|derived from [[Greek language|Greek]] {{translit|grc|homo-}} ({{wikt-lang|grc|ὁμός|ὁμο‑}}) {{gloss|same}} and {{translit|grc|phōnḗ}} ({{wikt-lang|grc|φωνή}}) {{gloss|voice, utterance}}.{{cn|date=March 2025}}}}
}}

==References==
{{reflist|22em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|22em}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Franklyn |first=Julian
 |year=1966
 |title=Which Witch?
 |edition=1st
 |location=New York, NY
 |publisher=Dorset Press
 |isbn=0-88029-164-8
}}
* {{Cite book
 |last=Room |first=Adrian
 |year=1996
 |title=An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies
 |location=Lanham and London, UK
 |publisher=The Scarecrow Press
 |isbn=978-081083169-8
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEtiAAAAMAAJ
 |access-date=2020-12-23 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414154830/https://books.google.com/books?id=XEtiAAAAMAAJ
 |archive-date=2021-04-14
}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Stewart |first=Garrett
 |year=2015
 |title=The Deed of Reading: Literature, writing, language, philosophy
 |location=Ithaca, NY and London, UK
 |publisher=Cornell University Press
 |isbn=978-150170170-2
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-5IDwAAQBAJ
 |access-date=2020-12-23 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414155419/https://books.google.com/books?id=T-5IDwAAQBAJ
 |archive-date=2021-04-14
}}

{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
* [http://www.homophone.com Homophone.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507141952/https://www.homophone.com/ |date=7 May 2021 }} – a list of American homophones with a searchable database
* [http://www.pisgahpress.com/authors/a-d-reed/ Reed's homophones] – a book of sound-alike words published in 2012
* [http://www.homophones.ml/ Homophones.ml] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506173704/https://homophones.ml/ |date=6 May 2021 }} – a collection of homophones and their definitions
* [http://homophonemachine.allaboutlearningpress.com/ Homophone Machine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514013908/https://homophonemachine.allaboutlearningpress.com/ |date=14 May 2021 }} – swaps homophones in any sentence
* [https://mingle-ish.com/useful-tips-and-information-for-learning-english/homophones/ Useful tips ... English homophones] – homophones list, activities and worksheets

{{Lexicology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ambiguity]]
[[Category:Narrative techniques]]
[[Category:Semantic relations]]
[[Category:Types of words]]
[[Category:Homonymy]]