Homonyms brief definition. Homonyms (from Greek

In many languages ​​of the planet there is such a thing as homonymy. It is based on the fact that words and morphemes that are identical in sound and spelling have different meaning. They are called "homonyms". Examples of them are found everywhere. We use them extremely often in ordinary speech.

Homonyms

Examples confirming this phenomenon are known to many. These are the common words:

• “bow” in the meaning of plant and weapon;
• “escape”, in one case denoting a young branch, and in the other - an unauthorized hasty departure.

Out of context, it is difficult to determine in what exact meaning these homonyms are used. Example sentences with words will demonstrate this phenomenon clearly.

• Green onions are especially good in vegetable salads.
• A boy was given a toy bow and arrow for his birthday.
• The apple tree produced a young shoot, but the gardener pruned it in the fall.
• The Count of Monte Cristo escaped from prison in a creative way, replacing the prisoner's corpse with himself.

Examples of phrases will help you understand what homonyms mean:

• “green onions” and “sharp onions”;
• “maiden braid” and “river braid”;
• "three apples" and "three rag stain".

This phenomenon is quite entertaining, therefore it is often used by Russian language teachers as an entertaining technique in studying the subject, a way to expand lexicon and the outlook of students.

Games with homonyms in lessons and extracurricular activities

To conduct this competition, you should prepare pairs of words that have the same pronunciation and spelling, but absolutely different meanings. Players are offered only meanings, and the words themselves (you can use the same spelling for both) are hidden under a cardboard picture that will serve as a point token, for example, a template of a tree leaf, an apple, a gold bar. The participant who correctly names the homonyms receives this emblem as a point after the correct answer. At the end of the game, the token points are tallied and a winner is chosen.

Homonyms are suitable for the competition, examples of which can be as follows (it should be recalled that only pictures are presented to participants and spectators, the words themselves are closed):

• “shop” as a piece of furniture and a small retail outlet;
• the word "Lama", appearing in one sense as an animal, and in another - as a Tibetan monk.

During the lesson, you can offer students one or two pairs of words. Completing this task will only take a few minutes, but the benefits will be enormous. Indeed, in addition to the above, this type activities generate and strengthen interest in learning the Russian language.

Homonymy and polysemy

Many words have more than one meaning. Although they have the same spelling, they differ lexically. It is necessary to distinguish between homonyms and polysemantic words. Examples of polysemy are also quite common. For example, two words pronounced like “key” can act as homonyms in the following way:

• spring and device for opening.

But in the meanings “violin”, “nut”, “from door lock", "device for rolling up cans" "key" is one word. This is an amazing linguistic feature that should already be considered a phenomenon of polysemy. After all, each listed option involves the key’s ability to open something: a line of music or some object. This is one word with different meanings, not different homonyms.

Examples of such polysemantic words in Russian speech there is a great variety. Sometimes it is quite difficult to separate them from homonyms.

Polysemy sometimes occurs from the transition of a name based on external similarity. This is

• “sleeve” - a separate river bed and part of the shirt;
• "ribbon" - a device for a girl's hairstyle and long road, the moving part of the conveyor.

The ambiguity of these words arose from the external similarity of some features. For example, a sleeve in clothing is separated from a common large item. And the branching of the riverbed resembles the same phenomenon. Actually, the word “trouser leg” could have appeared in this version, but for some reason the Russian people chose “sleeve”.

The tape is a narrow, long object. Apparently, the person who invented the conveyor saw the similarity of its moving part with a device for a girl’s hairstyle. This is how the name transition occurred, the phenomenon of polysemy.

Etymological homonymy

A group of words belongs to homonyms unambiguously, since their very origin is already different. Therefore, in the task “Give examples of homonyms that differ etymologically,” you need to select words that came into Russian speech from different languages. To do this, you should look into the etymological dictionary.

These are the word “boron”, meaning chemical element, and its homonym is pine forest. The first noun came into Russian speech from Persian language, where it sounded like “borax”, that is, boron compounds. The name of the pine forest is of Slavic origin.

Some linguists believe that the existence of the phenomenon of homonymy should be recognized only where the etymology of the words itself differs.

These same linguists do not see homonymy in the noun “ether” as an organic substance and in the meaning of “radio broadcasting and television.” After all, historically both words have a common etymology. They come from the ancient Greek root αἰθήρ, which means “mountain air.” And if the task says: “Give examples of homonyms,” and the answerer uses the word “ether” in two meanings, then these scientists will consider the answer incorrect.

Disputes between linguists about polysemy and homonymy

However, not everyone can determine the historical origin of words offhand. This often requires special dictionaries. Therefore, most people see that the meanings of the word “ether” are completely different and classify them as homonyms. Therefore, some linguists also do not see the polysemy here. The explanatory dictionary classifies them as different words with different meanings.

Examples of homonyms that cause controversy among linguists are:

• “braid” in the meaning of a hairstyle and a tool for mowing, since some argue that there is a transition of the name based on external similarity (thin and long);
• “pen” as a tool for writing, a device for opening, turning on, since some people determine ambiguity by the fact that they have something in common in their method of action (writing and opening with their hand);
• “feather” in the sense of “handle” and as a cutaneous horny formation of birds and some dinosaurs, considering that the first meaning came to the word from the historical method of writing with bird feathers.

Some linguists classify as homonymy all words in which polysemy can be traced. They consider polysemy to be only a special case.

Full homonyms

Linguists divide words that have the same pronunciation and spelling and have different meanings into two groups. Those belonging to one grammatical category full lexical homonyms. Examples of these: “braid”, “tongue”, “escape”, “key” and others. In all their forms, these words are the same in both spelling and pronunciation.

Incomplete or partial homonyms

Words that coincide only in some forms are also highlighted. These are grammatical homonyms. Examples of this phenomenon often refer to different parts of speech:

• “three” is a 2nd person singular verb of the imperative mood with the initial form “to rub” and “three” is a cardinal number;
• "oven" is a verb in indefinite form and “oven” is a feminine singular noun;
• “saw” is a feminine singular verb in the past tense and “saw” is a feminine singular noun.

Grammatical homonymy is also observed in words belonging to the same part of speech. For example, the 1st person singular verbs of the present tense are “I’m flying.” The first word is defined as an action related to medicine. Already the infinitive will sound like “to treat.” And the second verb has initial form“fly” and denotes the action of taking flight.

Partial homonymy is observed in words of the same grammatical category. This occurs when words differ in only one form. For example, the two nouns “caress” - animal and manifestation of tenderness - do not coincide only in the genitive plural. These homonyms in this form will look like “weasel” and “weasel”.

Homonyms and homophones

Some people confuse the phenomenon of homonymy with others. For example, homophones are words that sound alike but have different meanings but are differently spelled. These are not homonyms! Examples of words that are homophones show this feature.

• “Cat” is a pet, and “code” is most often a certain set of symbols or sounds.

Everyone will notice that these words should be written differently. But it is almost impossible to hear the difference by ear. The word “code” must be pronounced with the final consonant stunned. This is where the sound similarity comes from.

Homonymy and homography

There are other linguistic phenomena similar to the one we are considering. For example, homographs are interesting because they have the same spelling, but are pronounced differently, most often due to stress. These are also not homonyms. Examples of homograph words are:

• gate - gate;
• castle - castle;
• smell - smell.

Homographs are also interesting for composing tasks for competitions and games. Using picture riddles in which homographs are encrypted, you can diversify linguistic activities.

Homonyms- these are different in meaning, but identical sounding or spelling units of language - words, morphemes.
Derived from Greek homos- identical and onyma- Name.
There are several types of homonyms: full and partial, graphic and grammatical, phonetic and homonymous.

U full/absolute homonyms the entire system of forms coincides. For example, key(for castle) - key(spring), bugle(blacksmith) - bugle(wind instrument).
U partial Not all forms have the same sound. For example, weasel(animal) and weasel(show of endearment) diverge in form genitive case plural - caress - caress.

Graphic homonyms or homographs- words that are the same in spelling, but differ in pronunciation (in Russian due to differences in stress).
From Greek homos- identical and graphic- writing.
Atlas - atlas
lead - lead
whiskey - whiskey
road - road
castle - castle
smell - smell
great - great
goats - goats
lesok - lesok
little - little
flour - flour
hell - hell
pier - pier
forty - forty
Already - already

Grammatical homonyms or homoforms- words that sound the same only in some grammatical forms and most often belong to different parts of speech.
I'm flying by plane and I'm flying throat (in other forms - fly and heal, flew and treated, etc.); acute saw And saw compote (in other forms - saw and drink, saw and drink, etc.).

Homonymous morphemes or homomorphemes- morphemes that are the same in their sound composition, but different in meaning.
Derived from Greek homos- identical and morphe- form.
For example, the suffix -tel in nouns teacher(meaning actor) And switch(the meaning of the current item); suffix -ets in words sage, male, cutter and brother; suffix -k(a) in words river, training, extras and graduate student.

And the most interesting Phonetic homonyms or homophones- words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings.
Derived from Greek ὀμόφωνο - "sound-likeness".
Examples in Russian:

threshold - vice - park,
meadow - onion, fruit - raft,
mascara - mascara,
fall - you will fall,
ball - point,
inert - bony,
betray - give,
emit - imitate.

In the Russian language, the two main sources of homophony are the phenomenon of deafening consonants at the end of words and before another consonant and the reduction of vowels in an unstressed position.

Homophony also includes cases of phonetic coincidence of a word and a phrase or two phrases. The letters used can be completely identical and the difference in spelling is only in the placement of spaces:

in place - together,
in everything - at all,
from mint - crushed,
from the hatch - and the angry one,
not mine - dumb.

In English, homophones arose as a result of the historically established different designations in writing for the same consonant or vowel sound, for example:

whole-hole,
knew - new.

In French There are whole series of homophones consisting of three to six words, one of the reasons for which is that in French many final letters are not readable.

Sources: Wikipedia, Dictionaries, Directories

Homonyms

Homonyms

HOMONYMS (Greek) - words that coincide with each other in their sound but have a complete discrepancy in meaning. Example - “bow” (weapon) - “bow” (plant). Usually the appearance of O. in the language is explained by the random coincidence of once different bases as a result of a series of sound changes - cf. French “verre” - “glass”, “vert” - “green”, “vers” - “verse” with their Latin prototypes: “vitrum”, “viridis”, “versus”.
Some researchers (Wood F. A., Rime-Words and Rime-Ideas, Indo-germanische Forschungen, B. XXII, pp. 133-171) tried to establish a known connection between such a convergence of the sound side of words with their semantic proximity, arguing that homonymous development is conditioned by semantic and sound “corhyming” the basics. However, the “rhyme theory” cannot be considered proven.
On the other hand, some of the existing modern languages O. may appear as such to developed thinking, which is no longer aware of those connections by which names are given to things and phenomena by undeveloped thinking primitive man; therefore, a “bundle” or “series” of meanings, originally denoted by one word, can be perceived as a group of O. So, in the Chukchi language. numeric values designated by body parts; “five” as “hand”, “twenty” as “person”. There is no doubt that with the development of the Chukchi literary language. the consonance between “hand” and “five” will begin to be perceived as homonymous.
On the similar origin of the series O. cf. ak. N. Ya. Marr, On the paleontological analysis of non-Japhetic languages, Leningrad, 1931.
For the use of homonyms in poetic speech, see Pun, Homonymic rhyme.

Literary encyclopedia. - At 11 t.; M.: Publishing House of the Communist Academy, Soviet encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Fritsche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .

Homonyms

Words that sound the same but have different meanings, for example: club (couple and sports), change your mind (many things and change your mind). In oral speech, sound homonyms (homophones) arise - words that sound the same, although they are written differently: cry and cry, boil and open.

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

Homonyms

HOMONYMS- words that have the same sound but different meanings. For example, “swords” (from the word “sword”) and “swords” (from the word “throw”); “three” (number) and “three” (from the word “to rub”), etc. A pun game is built on homonyms (see Pun), and from this side they can be a poetic device. But the meaning of homonyms as a device is not limited to their puns. Homonyms can be used only because of the richness of their possibilities and without any punning intent, as, for example, in the so-called homonymous rhymes. Such rhymes, as Valery Bryusov points out (see his “Experiments”), are also found in Pushkin:

What does the wife do?

Alone, in the absence of a spouse.

("Count Nulin")

Bryusov himself gave poems, even entirely in homonymous rhymes, like “On the Pond” or “On the Shore.” See, for example, the stanza in the last poem:

Closing my exhausted eyelids,

A moment gone by the shore,

Oh, if only I could stand like this forever

On this quiet shore.

Along with the purely sound significance of homonyms, in this example it is interesting to pay attention to the character that receives the very meaning of homonym words united by rhyme. The contrast between the same sound and different meaning of homonyms, which in puns gives a comic character to the concepts denoted by homonyms, in Bryusov, on the contrary, leads to a deepening of their content. And due to the fact that this contrast is strengthened by the very position of homonyms as rhymes, the deepening becomes directly obvious. Indeed, the homonyms “beregu” from “to take care” and “beregu” from “berega”, consonantly opposed to one another, are mutually enriched: the concrete “bereg” expands its content, receiving an abstract connotation from the word “beregu” (to take care), and back to the abstract “protect” a specific shade from “shore”. There is something similar in the rhyming homonyms “eyelids” and “forever”. Homonym, therefore, fulfills here one of the essential functions of poetic thinking, namely, it destroys the gap between the abstract and the concrete.

We have unique cases of using homonyms in the broad sense of the word in Gogol, who sometimes used homonymic techniques when giving names to his heroes. So, for example, in “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich Quarreled,” among the guests present at the “assembly” where an attempt was made to reconcile Iv. Iv. with Iv. Nick., named: “not that Ivan Ivanovich, but another” and “our Ivan Ivanovich.” A few lines later, Gogol again mentions this “other” Yves. Ivanovich, but to the again repeated expression: “not that Iv. Iv., and the other one” adds: “whose eye is crooked.” And I'm curious what exactly this crooked Iv. Iv. Gogol makes you ask why at the “assembly” no Iv. Nick., And namely crooked Iv. Iv. makes an offer to reconcile Iv. Iv. with Iv. Nick. The artistic effect of this homonymous game is, of course, obvious, and it is completely in the spirit of that “pun circle” (see Pun), with the help of which Gogol depicted human vulgarity in “The Tale.” We also have an approach to a homonym in the surnames “Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky”. Here, the incomplete homonymic consonance of surnames that differ by only one letter represents a very striking poetic device. After all, in essence, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are one image, they are synonymous (see Synonym), and this internal synonymy, sameness, receives a special comic coloring from the fact that their surnames differ from one another, in just one letter.

Ya. Zundelovich. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1925

See what “Homonyms” are in other dictionaries:

- (from the Greek ὁμός identical and ονομα name) language units different in meaning, but identical in spelling and sound (words, morphemes, etc.). The term was introduced by Aristotle. Not to be confused with homophones. Contents 1 Classification 2 Examples 2.1 Words ... Wikipedia

- (Greek homonymos, from homos similar, and onoma name). Words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings or are spelled differently but pronounced the same way. For example, a stove pipe and a musical pipe, flour like suffering, and ground flour... ... Dictionary foreign words Russian language

Homonyms- HOMONYMS are words that have the same sound but different meanings. For example, “swords” (from the word “sword”) and “swords” (from the word “throw”); “three” (number) and “three” (from the word “rub”), etc. A pun game is built on homonyms (see pun), and already with ... Dictionary of literary terms

- (from the Greek homos identical and onyma name), different in meaning, but identical sounding and written units of language (words, morphemes, etc.), for example, trot running and lynx animal... Modern encyclopedia

- (from the Greek homos identical and onyma name) different, but identically sounding and written units of language (words, morphemes, etc.), for example. lynx running and lynx animal... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

HOMONYMS- (from Greek homos – identical + onyma – name). Words that belong to the same part of speech and sound the same, but have different meanings. There are O. complete (in which the entire system of forms is the same), partial (in which the sound is the same... ... New dictionary methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of language teaching)

HOMONYMS- (from Greek homos identical + onyma, onoma name) words with different meanings, which, however, are written and pronounced the same. For example, in English O.'s language includes the words pupil (student and pupil), as well as iris (iris of the eye and rainbow); in Russian language... ... Great psychological encyclopedia

homonyms- Identical terms denoting different entities. [GOST 34.320 96] Database topics EN homonyms ... Technical Translator's Guide

Homonyms- (from the Greek homos identical and onyma name), different in meaning, but identical sounding and written units of language (words, morphemes, etc.), for example, “trot” running and “lynx” animal. ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

homonyms- (ancient Greek ομος homos identical + onyma, ονυμά name) Words that have the same sound but different meanings: braid1 (girl’s hairstyle), scythe2 (tool), scythe3 (river spit, peninsula in the form of a narrow shallow). Interlingual homonyms occur... ... Dictionary of linguistic terms T.V. Foal

Books

• Homonyms of Russian dialect speech, M. Alekseenko, O. Litvinnikova. This is the first attempt at a dictionary of homonyms in Russian dialect speech. Includes words of different grammatical classes. Refers to the partial explanatory type of dictionaries. Called up…

Homonymy and polysemy

In relation to words belonging to the same parts of speech, in linguistics they often distinguish between homonymy and polysemy. Homonymy- This random coincidence words, while polysemy- the presence of a word with different historically related meanings. For example, the words “boron” in the meaning of “pine forest” and “boron” in the meaning of “chemical element” are homonyms, since the first word is Slavic origin, and the second arose from the Persian “Bura” - the name of one of the boron compounds. At the same time, for example, the words “ether” in the sense organic matter and “ether” in the sense of “radio broadcasting and television” are called by linguists the meanings of one word, that is, polysemy, since both come from ancient Greek. αἰθήρ - Mountain air.

However, another part of linguists draws the line between polysemy and homonymy in a different way. Namely, if most people see a common shade of meaning in two coinciding words (as linguists say, “a common semantic element”), then this is polysemy, and if they do not see it, then this is homonymy, even if the words have a common origin. For example, in the words “braid” (tool) and “braid” (hairstyle), the common semantic element noticed by most people is “something long and thin.”

Finally, some linguists consider all individual meanings of polysemous words to be homonyms. In this case, polysemy is a special case of homonymy.

All or almost all Russian linguists certainly classify coinciding words belonging to different parts of speech as homonyms. Examples of such homonyms are “flow” (leak) and “flow” (leakage).

Classification

• Complete (absolute) homonyms are homonyms in which the entire system of forms coincides. For example, outfit (clothing) - outfit (order), forge (blacksmith) - bugle (wind instrument).
• Partial homonyms are homonyms in which not all forms coincide. For example, weasel (animal) And caress (show of tenderness) diverge in the genitive plural form ( caresses - caress).
• Grammatical homonyms, or homoforms, are words that coincide only in certain forms (of the same part of speech or different parts of speech). For example, the numeral three and verb three coincide only in two forms (to three - we are three).

Omomorphemes

Along with homonyms, that is, homonymous words, there are also homomorphemes, that is, homonymous morphemes, in other words, parts of words (prefixes, suffixes, roots, endings) that coincide, but have different meanings.

Homonyms, homophones, homographs, and homoforms

• Homonyms - words that sound the same at the same time And spelled, but different in meaning.
• Homophones (phonetic homonyms) are words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings.
• Homographs (graphic homonyms) are words that are the same in spelling, but different in sound and meaning.
• Homoforms (grammatical homonyms) are different words, coinciding in individual grammatical forms. For example, the verbs fly and treat coincide in the 1st person singular form of the present tense - I'm flying.

Examples

Words

• 3: Braid - on the girl’s head; scythe - a tool for mowing; spit - a long cape in a body of water or in a watercourse (Curonian Spit).
• 7: Key - musical sign; key from door; the key is a natural source of water; key - wrench; key - information that allows you to decrypt a cryptogram or check digital signature; key - hint, cheat sheet, answer to a task, key - closing device in an electrical circuit
• 3: Butterfly is an insect; the bow tie; butterfly knife.
• 2: Onion is a plant; bow weapon.
• 3: Pen - writing (gel, ballpoint, etc.); handle - human hand; handle - door handle.
• 4: Brush - a bunch of ropes; wrist; brush - berries (rowan brush); brush - brush (for painting).
• 2: Trot - running (eg horse); lynx is an animal.
• 4: Troika - horses; three - mark; troika - the judicial body of the NKVD; three-piece suit.
• 2: The world is the universe; peace - the absence of war, hostility.
• 2: Messenger - giving news, a signal about something; messenger - in the army: a private for sending parcels on service matters.
• 3: Beam - part of a structure, a beam resting on something at several points (on walls, abutments); beam - a long ravine; beam and beam are lexical homonyms.
• 2: Kiwi is a fruit; kiwi is a bird.
• 2: Zebra is a beast; zebra crossing - pedestrian crossing.
• He mowed with a scythe (a well-known problematic phrase for foreigners).

Homonyms in poetry

You are the white swans fed,
Throwing away the weight of black braid…
I was swimming nearby; agreed fed;
The sunset ray was strange braid.

Valery Bryusov

Getting into a taxi, I asked dachshund:
“What is the fare? dachshund?»
And the driver: “Money from dachshunds
We don’t take it at all, here we go yes sir».

Yakov Kozlovsky

From the inside, like a ball chamber,
I burst, but hardly poem,
if my partner chamber
hears my prisoner poem
and a motive from the heart chamber.

Aydin Khanmagomedov

Homonymy in taxonomy

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See what “Homonym” is in other dictionaries:

Greek homonymos, from homos, similar, and onoma, a name. A word that has the same pronunciation as another word but a different meaning. Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with the meaning of their roots. Mikhelson A.D.,... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

homonym- a, m. homonyme m. gr. homonyma homos identical + onyma name. 1. A word that has the same sound as another word, but different in meaning. MAS 2. The game of Homonyms... consists in the fact that one leaves the company in which, without him... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

homonym- (incorrect homonym) ... Dictionary of difficulties of pronunciation and stress in modern Russian language

HOMONYM, homonym, husband. (from Greek homos identical and onyma name) (Ling.). A word that is identical to another in sound form, but different from it in meaning, for example. hail city and hail meteorological phenomenon. Dictionary Ushakova. D.N. Ushakov... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

HOMONYM, ah, husband. In linguistics: a word that coincides with another in sound, but is completely divergent from it in meaning, as well as in the system of forms or in the composition of the nest, for example. "flow 1" and "flow 2", "mow 1" and "mow 2". | adj. homonymous... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary Terms of botanical nomenclature

homonym- Borrowing. from French lang., where omonyme lat. homonymus, rendering Greek. homōnymos, the addition of homos “one and the same, identical” and onyma “name”. Homonym literally “single name” (meaning the same sound of words denoting different... ... Etymological dictionary Russian language

Every language contains words that cause confusion among foreigners. They have one unique feature: They are identical in writing and pronunciation. From school course In the Russian language, you probably remember that such components of native speech are called homonyms. This article will help you understand in more detail what homonyms are and what properties they have.

We see people like this every day Everyday life, but we don’t attach any importance to them. The most simple examples These lexical units can serve as onion in the meaning of a plant and onion as a weapon. Such nouns are a clear demonstration of complete homonymy. This means that the words presented are the same in absolutely all grammatical forms. This category can also include a noun such as a key: an object that helps to open and a spring - a source of drinking water.

The definition of what homonyms are cannot be unambiguous, if only because there are many subcategories of this lexical section. One of them is incomplete homonymy, that is, the coincidence of words that belong to the same word only in some word forms. The simplest illustration of this group is the word "factory". As you know, the plant is manufacturing enterprise. On the other hand, a watch may have a winder. Partial homonymy in this case is manifested in the fact that this word in the second meaning has no form

Thus, homonyms are identical lexical units in certain situations. The main thing is not to confuse the fact that homonyms are always words with a large number of different meanings, but on the contrary, this is not always the case.

What homonyms are is well understood, for example, by the British. In their native language There are also words that are written and pronounced exactly the same. The most common example is bat. On the one hand, this is and on the other, a baseball bat. But, despite the similarity of lexical phenomena in the language, it can be extremely difficult for foreigners to correctly interpret the meaning of Russian homonyms.

Homonyms in the Russian language, as in many other world dialects, can be distinguished from each other only in context. If, for example, we are talking about how to properly water and fertilize onions, it will immediately become clear to everyone that we are talking about a plant. In the event that it is described how to draw a bowstring, a weapon is meant.

There is another group of words that ranks with homonymy. It combines words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently. Cat - code, onion - meadow and many other lexical units have identical but different meanings and spellings, and are called homoforms.

The Russian language is a storehouse of amazing phenomena, many of which are difficult to understand and study. But after reading this article, you have taken a step towards studying your native speech and learned what homonyms and homoforms are, so you can be congratulated: our great and mighty one has already revealed some of his secrets to you!