This week’s theme
What the h...

This week’s words
heterochromatic
homophene
heteroclite
homologate
heterography

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(HOM-uh-feen)

MEANING:

noun: A word or phrase that, when spoken, appears to be the same as a different word or phrase on a person’s lips, for example my and pie.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek homo- (same) + phainein (to show). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bha- (to shine), which is also the source of beacon, banner, phantom, photo, phosphorus, phenomenon, fantasy, epiphany, sycophant, and apophenia. Earliest documented use: 1883.

NOTES:

Here are some more examples of words/phrases that appear the same to someone lip reading:
mark, park, and bark
“elephant juice” and “I love you”
bargain and market
What sentence can you come up with that is a homophene of another sentence? Share it below or email us at words@wordsmith.org.

USAGE:

“We had a session on homophenes which could cause misunderstanding, for example, married and buried, wet suit and wedding suit, big kiss and biscuits. Much laughter. Members volunteered their own stories of misunderstandings.”
David Lodge; Deaf Sentence; Penguin; 2009.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: