Linguistics: Heterograph

Posted August 25, 2016 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Linguistics, Self-Editing, Writing

Revised as of
7 Mar 2023

A type of linguistic word play, a heterograph is a subset of homophone, which is itself a subset of homonym and comprises one or more words (one word is the most common).

If you break heterograph apart:

Hetero- means different, other

-graph means drawn or written

This means a heterograph is written differently — with a different spelling. It does not mean the same but does sound the same.

Click here for a quick look at the differences between them -nyms, -graphs, -phones, and -semys.

Table 1. Quick Re-cap of Linguistic Word Play
Spelling	Sounds	Meaning	Example
Homonym
same	same	different	bark (tree) bark (dog)
Homograph
same	same OR different	different	present (gift) present (introduce)
Heteronym **
same	different	different	row (argument) row (of seats)
Paronym **
different	different	meaning	childish from child preface from prefatio affect vs effect
Capitonym
same, except 1. Proper Noun 2. common noun	same or different	different	1. March (third month of the year) 2. march (high stepping)
Monosemy *
ONE word	same	only ONE meaning	aunt
Polysemy *
same	same or different	shares a common root	mouth (hole in your face) mouth (cave opening)
Homophone
same or different	same	different	rose (flower) rose (past tense of rise) fair fare
Heterograph
different	same	different	copy right (copy correctly) copyright (patent) copywrite (write copy)
* Monosemy is the opposite of polysemy. ** Paronym is the opposite of heteronym.

Linguistics is . . .

. . . the systematic study of the nature, structure, and variation of language (of which grammar is a part), which describes how people use language. For the writer, how words are used (or spelled!) determines a character’s social and educational level and the time period for the story.

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Heterograph

Part of Speech: Linguistics, Semantics, Word Play, Figure of Speech

Definition: Words that are spelled differently, but pronounced the same, and have different meanings. A type of homophone, and, yes, they are also considered homonyms.

A.k.a. heterographic homophone, homophonic heterograph

SOME Examples:

Ate versus Eight	Bare versus Bear	Be versus Bee
Blew versus Blue	Copy Right vs Copyright vs Copywrite	Dear versus Deer
Flour versus Flower	Hair versus Hare	Knead versus Need
Might versus Mite	Pause versus Paws	Right vs Rite vs Wright vs Write
Road vs Rode vs Rowed	Son versus Sun	Weak versus Week

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

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