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A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning, and may differ in spelling. The words may be spelled the same, such as ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or differently, such as ''carat'', ''caret'', and ''carrot'', or ''to'', ''two'', and ''too''. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms.〔According to the strict sense of homonyms as words with the same spelling ''and'' pronunciation; however, homonyms according to the loose sense common in nontechnical contexts are words with the same spelling ''or'' pronunciation, in which case all homophones are also homonyms. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary entry for "homonym" ) at Dictionary.com〕 Homophones that are spelled differently are also called heterographs. The term "homophone" may also apply to units longer or shorter than words, such as phrases, letters or groups of letters that are pronounced the same as another phrase, letter or group of letters. A word or unit with this property is said to be "homophonous". "Homophone" derives from the Greek ''homo-'' (ὁμο‑), "same", and ''phōnḗ'' (φωνή), "voice, utterance". ==In wordplay and games== Homophones are often used to create puns and to deceive the reader (as in crossword puzzles) or to suggest multiple meanings. The last usage is common in poetry and creative literature. An example of this is seen in Dylan Thomas's radio play ''Under Milk Wood'': "The shops in mourning" where ''mourning'' can be heard as ''mourning'' or ''morning''. Another vivid example is Thomas Hood's use of "birth" and "berth" and "told" and "toll'd" (tolled) in his poem "Faithless Sally Brown": :His death, which happen'd in his berth, :At forty-odd befell: :They went and told the sexton, and :The sexton toll'd the bell. In some accents, various sounds have merged in that they are no longer distinctive, and thus words that differ only by those sounds in an accent that maintains the distinction (a minimal pair) are homophonous in the accent with the merger. Some examples from English are: :''pin'' and ''pen'' in many southern American accents. :''merry'', ''marry'', and ''Mary'' in most American accents. :The pairs ''do'', ''due'' and ''forward'', ''foreword'' are homophonous in most American accents but not in most British accents. :The pairs ''talk'', ''torque'', and ''court'', ''caught'' are distinguished in rhotic accents such as Scottish English and most dialects of American English, but are homophones in many non-rhotic accents such as British Received Pronunciation. Wordplay is particularly common in English because the multiplicity of linguistic influences offers considerable complication in spelling and meaning and pronunciation compared with other languages. Homophones of multiple words or phrases (as sometimes seen in word games) are also known as "oronyms". This term was coined by Gyles Brandreth and first published in his book ''The Joy of Lex'' (1980), and it was used in the BBC programme ''Never Mind the Full Stops'', which also featured Brandreth as a guest. Examples of "oronyms" (which may only be true homophones in certain dialects of English) include: :"ice cream" vs. "I scream" (as in the popular song "I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream.") :"euthanasia" vs. "Youth in Asia" :"depend" vs. "deep end" :"Gemini" vs. "Jim and I" and also vs. "Jem in eye" :"the sky" vs. "this guy" (most notably as a mondegreen in Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix) :"four candles" vs. "fork handles" :"crusher" vs. "crusha" :"sand which is there" vs. "sandwiches there" :"philanderer" vs. "Flanders" :"example" vs. "egg sample" :"some others" vs. "some mothers" and also vs. "smothers" :"minute" vs. "my newt" :"vodka" vs. "Ford Ka" :"foxhole" vs. "Vauxhall" vs. "Vauxhall" :"big hand" vs. "began" vs. "Mégane" vs. "Meg's hand" :"real eyes" vs. "realize" vs. "real lies" :"a dressed male" vs. "addressed mail" :"them all" vs. "the mall" In his Appalachian comedy routine, American comedian Jeff Foxworthy frequently uses oronyms which play on exaggerated "country" accents. Notable examples include: :Initiate: "My wife ate two sandwiches, ''initiate'' (then she ate ) a bag o' tater chips." Mayonnaise: "''Mayonnaise'' (there is ) a lot of people here tonight." Innuendo: "Hey dude I saw a bird fly ''innuendo'' (your window )." Moustache: "I ''Moustache'' (ask ) you a question." Malapropisms, which often create a similar comic effect, are usually near-homophones. See also Eggcorn. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Homophone」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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