Homonyms, Homographs, Homophones
"'Mine is a long and sad tale!' said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.
"'It is a long tail, certainly,' said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; 'but why do you call it sad?'"
(Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
There are three kinds of homonyms: those that sound and look alike (bank a slope, bank a place for money, and bank a bench or row of switches); homophones, that sound alike but do not look alike (coarse, course); and homographs, that look alike but do not sound alike (the verb lead, the metal lead)
A homograph is a word that is spelt identically to another word but has a different meaning. You will doubtless be annoyed if you tear your trousers while climbing over a fence. Indeed, you may be so upset that you shed a tear. As you can see, 'tear' and 'tear' are spelt identically, but they are pronounced differently and have entirely different meanings. They are good examples of a homograph. Many homographs are not even pronounced differently.
A homophone is a word that sounds exactly like another word, but has a different meaning and a different spelling. If you stand on the stair and stare at the picture, you have a good example of a couple of homophones...
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