heteronym
/ˈhɛt.ə.ɹoʊ.nɪm/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A word having the same spelling as another, but with a different meaning and (often) pronunciation.
noun
A fictitious character created by an author for the purpose of writing in a different style.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: heterophone, homograph"
- "The word lead (/ˈlɛd/), for the metal, and lead (/ˈliːd/), for a leash, are heteronyms."
- "The word agape, "astonished" or "wide open," is a heteronym of agape, "Christian love.""
- "[…] the present paper aims at illuminating the origins of the concept under study, as well as presenting its readers with the reasons why certain characters in some of Yeats’s works go beyond mere masks and personae and fulfil the criteria to be considered as heteronyms."
- "Heteronyms are the distinct poetic personae that Pessoa adopted during the writing of his poems, and who were presented as their true authors."
Etymology
By surface analysis, hetero (“different”) + -onym (“name”). Compare Ancient Greek ἑτερώνυμος (heterṓnumos). First attested in 1885 in sense 1. The coining of this term in sense 3 (as Portuguese heterónimo) is usually attributed to Fernando Pessoa.
Origin
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhɛt.ə.ɹoʊ.nɪm/
- British English: /ˈhɛt.əɹ.ə(ʊ).nɪm/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
homophone & homograph
homophone & heterograph
alternative spelling
heterophone & heterograph
heterophone & homograph
alternative pronunciation