Heteronyms

HOMOGRAPHS ("written the same") comprise:

• Homonyms ("written the same, same pronunciation, different meaning"); example: FIRE/FIRE.

• Heteronyms ("written the same, different pronunciation, different meaning"); example: READ/READ.

Here we have 850+ heteronyms - words spelt the same, but which have alternative meanings if pronounced a different way.

I built up a list of 700-ish one at a time over a period of 25 years; thinking of a heteronym at night was challenging, how to remember it in the morning? Aide-memoires were no use, the problem is  how to  remember the aide-memoire ...

I've added a few more from the Internet. The resulting list is probably the longest list of heteronyms in the whole world, in any language.

EXAMPLES

• • "I protest at the protest; the car-tower will tower above my son; through the entrance and turn left, she will entrance you".

  • "Let's go putting, after putting our bows and arrows in the ship’s bows”.

  • "My arm felt number yesterday, and my leg was pussy", he moped as he rode off on his moped.

  • "Would you object to rose, graves, sake or pate?", she proceeds.

THE CORPUS

The list includes:

• • Noun / verb differences (It will transFORM your life / a Laplace TRANSform). This is the most common type.

  • Past tense and plural (BOW / BOWED / BOWS).

  • Abbreviations with a missing apostrophe (SHELL / SHE'LL).

• • Hyphens ignored (COOP / CO-OP).

  • Accents ignored (PATE / PATÉ).

  • Context-dependent words (A can be pronounced “eh?” or “uh”, THE can be pronounced “thee” or “thuh”).

The list doesn't include:

• • Homonyms (TYPE/TYPE,  RING/RING).

  • Alternative pronunciations (CONtribute / conTRIBute).

HOVER OVER THE LIST AND CLICK THE ARROW ...