homograph
/ˈhɑːməɡɹæf/noun
homograph is a noun meaning “A word that is spelled the same as another word, usually having a different etymology” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-O-M-O-G-R-A-P-H, and it appears about once in every 72 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of homograph is homographs.
What does homograph mean?
noun
- 1
A word that is spelled the same as another word, usually having a different etymology.
- 2
A text character or string that looks identical to another when rendered.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce homograph?
- UK /ˈhɒməɡɹɑːf/
- UK /ˈhəʊməɡɹæf/
- US /ˈhɑːməɡɹæf/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-homograph.ogg, En-us-homograph-2.ogg, En-au-homograph.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of homograph
- homographs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is homograph?
Homograph appears about once in every 72 million words in written English, the 269,040th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Words people confuse with homograph
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Homograph in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense word with the same spelling but different meaning:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | homographe |
| German | Homograph |
| Portuguese | homógrafo |
| Spanish | homógrafo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does homograph come from?
From homo- + -graph.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).