Homonyms, homophones and homographs can bring confusion to even adults and teachers! VocabularySpellingCity can help anyone master these word groups. For clarity, we've brought them all together on one page. It makes it easier to learn the difference among the three types of words using the definitions and homonyms, homophones and homographs examples below.

Homonyms

Homonyms, or multiple meaning words, are words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. For example, bear.

A bear (the animal) can bear (tolerate) very cold temperatures.
The driver turned left (opposite of right) and left (departed from) the main road.

Homophones, also known as sound-alike words, are words that are pronounced identically although they have different spellings and meanings. These words are a very common source of confusion when writing. Common examples of sets of homophones include: to, too, and two; they're and their; bee and be; sun and son; which and witch; and plain and plane. VocabularySpellingCity is a particularly useful tool for learning to correctly use and spell the soundalike words.

Homographs

Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and different pronunciations. Some examples of homographs are:

bass as in fish vs bass as in music,
bow as in arrow vs bow as in bending or taking a bow at the end of a performance,
close as in next to vs close as in shut the door,
desert as in dry climate vs desert as in leaving alone.

Currently, VocabularySpellingCity cannot distinguish between homographs, as we are unable to have two pronounciations for the exact same word. We are looking for possibilities in the future.

Heteronyms or Heterophones

Same Spelling, Different Pronunciations, Different Meanings.

Wind: I need to wind the alarm clock so I can fly my kite in the early morning gusty wind.

Record: Please record the program when they try to beat the world record for word nerdiness.

Excuse: Please excuse this poor excuse for art.

Capitonyms

Capitonyms are different words spelled the same except for the capitalization. Sometimes they are pronounced the same, sometimes they are not.

Turkey: I like to visit the country of Turkey and eat that American bird, turkey.

Mobile: My mobile phone ironically did not work in Mobile, Alabama.

May: In May, when spring is almost over, I may pack away my winter clothes.

March: On the Ides of March, we will march in the parade.

Polish. The Polish refugee said nothing but went straight to work putting polish on the silver.

Homophones at a glance:

1st Grade Homophones: to, too, two, be, bee, tea, tee, dew, due, do, ad, add, buy, by, one, won, in, inn, see, sea

2nd Grade Homophones: son, sun, tail, tale, I, eye, or, oar, blew, blue, arc, ark, bare, bear, but, butt, dear, deer, fair, fare

3rd Grade Homophones: ail, ale, bait, bate, hair, hare, sail, sale, mail, male,feat, feet, leak, leek, meat, meet, peek, peak, seam, seem, its, it's, nose, knows, hour, our, pail, pale

4th Grade Homophones: pair, pare, pear, lie, lye, read, reed, soar, sore, wrap, rap, knot, not, loan, lone, flea, flee, stair, stare, boar, bore, board, bored, flour, flower, sweet, suite, weak, week

5th Grade Homophones: throne, thrown, peer, pier, plain, plane, waist, waste, real, reel, cent, scent, sent, cheap, cheep, ware, wear, where, we're, were, which, witch, rays, raise, who's, whose, ring, wring, threw, through

6th Grade Homophones: accept, except, marry, merry, affect, effect, allowed, aloud, addition, edition, away, aweigh, aisle, I'll, fore, four, lean, lien, loot, lute

7th Grade Homophones: shear, sheer, sink, synch, air, heir, scene, seen, sign, sine, flair, flare, bite, byte, nay, neigh, he'd, heed

8th Grade Homophones: thyme, time, praise, prays, preys, rain, reign, rein, heard, herd, wail, whale, pause, paws, pores, pours, site, sight, cite

9th Grade Homophones: throes, throws, rote, wrote, whine, wine, accent, assent, ascent, excess, access, leak, leek, elude, allude, aid, aide, mall, maul, muscle, mussel, advice, advise, karat, carrot, discreet, discrete, slay, sleigh, altar, alter

10th Grade Homophones: faint, feint, satire, satyr, marshal, martial, baron, barren, beach, beech, medal, meddle, storey, story, berth, birth, moose, mousse, muscle, mussel

11th Grade Homophones: braise, brays, palette, pallet, naval, navel, boarder, border, gorilla, guerilla, canvas, canvass, cereal, serial, principal, principle, coarse, course

12th Grade Homophones: whether, weather, complement, compliment, council, counsel, desert, dessert, knead, need, currant, current, accept, except, leased, least, accede, exceed