Homonym or homophone?
homonym is a noun meaning “A word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word”; homophone is a noun meaning “A word which is pronounced the same as another word but differs in spelling or…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) homonym is about as common as homophone.
What is the difference between homonym and homophone?
| homonym | homophone | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | A word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word A name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another name that belongs to a different taxon | A word which is pronounced the same as another word but differs in spelling or meaning or origin A letter or group of letters which are pronounced the same as another letter or group of letters |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | homonyms | homophones |
| Pronunciation | /ˈhɒmənɪm/ /ˈhɑmənɪm/ | /ˈhɒməfəʊn/ /ˈhɑməfoʊn/ /ˈhɔməfəʉn/ |
| In writing | about once in every 12 million words | about once in every 13 million words |
Sources: homonym and homophone in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of homonym and homophone
homonym
- 1
A word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word
- 2
A name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another name that belongs to a different taxon
homophone
- 1
A word which is pronounced the same as another word but differs in spelling or meaning or origin
- 2
A letter or group of letters which are pronounced the same as another letter or group of letters
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, homonym or homophone?
homonym appears about once in every 12 million words; homophone about once in every 13 million words.
homonym about once in every 12 million wordshomophone about once in every 13 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search homonym vs homophone?
“homonym vs homophone” is searched about 6,600 times a month on Google and 170 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“homophone vs homonym”, “homonym or homophone”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.