Wednesday, August 1, 2012

heteronym

In linguistics, heteronyms (also known as heterophones) are words that are written identically but have different pronunciations and meanings. In other words, they are homographs that are not homophones. Thus, row (propel with oars) and row (argument) are heteronyms, but mean (intend) and mean (average) are not (since they are pronounced the same). Heteronym pronunciation may vary in vowel realisation, in stress pattern (see also Initial-stress-derived noun).

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talk nineteen to the dozen

  to speak rapidly and without stopping