heteronym

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
17
Words With Friends
17
Letters
9
Pronunciation
/ˈhɛt.əɹ.ə(ʊ).nɪm/ (UK)
See all 3 pronunciations
/ˈhɛt.əɹ.ə(ʊ).nɪm/ (UK) · /ˈhɛt.ə.ɹoʊ.nɪm/ (US) · /ˈhɛt.ə.ɹə.nɪm/ (US)

Definition of heteronym

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (dated)Calque.
See all 3 definitions

noun

  1. (dated)Calque.
  2. A word having the same spelling as another, but with a different meaning and (often) pronunciation.
    “Near-synonyms: heterophone, homograph”
    “The word lead (/ˈlɛd/), for the metal, and lead (/ˈliːd/), for a leash, are heteronyms.”
    “The word agape, "astonished" or "wide open," is a heteronym of agape, "Christian love."”
  3. A fictitious character created by an author for the purpose of writing in a different style.
    “[…] the present paper aims at illuminating the origins of the concept under study, as well as presenting its readers with the reasons why certain characters in some of Yeats’s works go beyond mere masks and personae and fulfil the criteria to be considered as heteronyms.”
    “Heteronyms are the distinct poetic personae that Pessoa adopted during the writing of his poems, and who were presented as their true authors.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

By surface analysis, hetero (“different”) + -onym (“name”). Compare Ancient Greek ἑτερώνυμος (heterṓnumos). First attested in 1885 in sense 1. The coining of this term in sense 3 (as Portuguese heterónimo) is usually attributed to Fernando Pessoa.

Words you can make from heteronym

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7-letter words

4 words

6-letter words

22 words

5-letter words

51 words

4-letter words

69 words

3-letter words

53 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to heteronym to make another valid word.

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