WordDaily - Homonymous
həʊˈmɒnɪməs
ADJECTIVE
Having the same name as another (i.e., a namesake).
Of or pertaining to a homonym.
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EXAMPLE SENTENCES
“Coincidentally, the judge and the lawyer had homonymous family names.”
“My family has a tradition of giving homonymous middle names to every child.”
“Though ‘compliment’ is homonymous with ‘complement,’ the words describe two different actions.”
WORD ORIGIN
Greek, late 17th century
WHY THIS WORD?
There are two definitions of “homonymous”: The first is relating to people having the same names, and the second pertains to the grammatical term “homonym.” “Homonym,” broken into its Latin parts, means “same name,” but it describes certain classes of words. Homographs are different words with identical spellings, regardless of pronunciation (such as the metal “lead” and the verb “to lead”). Homophones are pronounced the same, regardless of spelling (such as “by” and “buy” or “merry” and “marry”). In order for words to be homonymous, they must share one of these characteristics.
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