Differences between homonyms, homographs and homophones

A word that is pronounced like another, but is written differently, what is it: homonymous, homologous or homophonic ? We know that understanding the difference between these three concepts is a bit complicated, due to the similarity between the terms. That is why we want to solve your doubts and explain what are the differences between homonyms, homographs and homophones.

Homonyms

Homonyms or homonymous words are those that are written or pronounced the same, but have different meanings. That is, they do not have to give both circumstances at the same time, but they can be one without the other. In this way, homonymy includes two possible cases:

Words that are written and pronounced exactly the same, but have different meanings: homographs or homophobic words.
Words that are written differently, but are pronounced the same and have different meanings: homophones or homophones.

Homographs

In this way, homographs are a type of homonyms that occur when different words are written and pronounced in the same way, but have different meanings.

For example:

lime / lime : fruit / tool for nail care
cat / cat : animal / tool for lifting a vehicle

It should be noted that in the case of Spanish, all homologous words will be homophonic, since if two words are written exactly the same, they must also be pronounced in the same way.

Homophones

On the other hand, homophones are the type of homonyms that are pronounced or sound the same, but their writing is different, as well as their meaning.

For example: