homonym
/ˈhɑmənɪm/noun
homonym is spelled H-O-M-O-N-Y-M: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 103,949th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “homonym vs homophone” about 6,600 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, homonym means “A word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of homonym is homonyms.
How many letters and syllables are in homonym?
| Letters | 7: H-O-M-O-N-Y-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 12 million words; the 103,949th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is homonym?
Homonym appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 103,949th 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).
How do you pronounce homonym?
- UK /ˈhɒmənɪm/
- US /ˈhɑmənɪm/
Homonym has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-homonym.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with homonym
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).
Forms of homonym
- homonyms plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does homonym mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Homonym in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense word with the same sound or spelling:
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 homonym come from?
From Latin homōnymum, from Ancient Greek ὁμώνυμον (homṓnumon), nominalized from the neuter of ὁμώνῠμος (homṓnŭmos, “homonymous”). By surface analysis, hom- + -onym.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).