heteronym
he·te·ro·nym
noun
1.
two words are heteronyms if they are spelled the same way but differ in pronunciation (e.g. `bow'')
Origin
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.
Phrases
- alternative pronunciation
- alternative spelling
- heterophone & heterograph
- heterophone & homograph
- homophone & heterograph
- homophone & homograph
Related words
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.