The Curious Case of Homonyms

“There was a dog barking at a tree bark. It kept running right and left till it eventually left”.

Words can be confusing sometimes even for those mastering the language, and especially when it comes to words that are written and pronounced exactly the same way. This category of words is called Homonyms, a Greek word meaning “having the same name”.

As mentioned in the example above, the word “bark,” for example, has two meanings; one of these meanings is dogs’ sound while the other is a part of the tree. The word is spelled and pronounced exactly the same way to give both meanings. Hence, the context is the only way to identify the intended meaning of a homonym. There are many homonyms in the English language, and they’re usually used by writers to make their pieces more profound and fancy.

Homonyms in sentences:

- I saw a bat today while I was looking for my baseball bat.

- He thought his day was fine till he got a fine for parking his car on the side walk.

- The giant bear in the zoo was making a loud noise that I couldn’t bear.

- He threw a rock at the guy wearing a rock band shirt.

Generally, homonyms may be tricky but once you learn how to identify them, you’ll be even more confident about your language skills. If you ever come across a text and you find a word that doesn’t make sense in the context, you may want to look it up, you’ll add a homonym to  your collection.