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While there are homophones like bear and bare, and homographs like sow, the pig, and to sow a seed, is there a term for words that cover both categories? The example that comes to mind for me is to cleave. Is there a term for when they overlap?

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Homonym.

In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. Thus homonyms are simultaneously homographs (words that share the same spelling, irrespective of their pronunciation) and homophones (words that share the same pronunciation, irrespective of their spelling).

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So, correct me if I'm mistaken, but is the way I was using the word homophone perhaps implying the tag of a heterograph as well? Could you explain it if I'm wrong? – Elizabite Jun 5 '11 at 23:40

protected by RegDwighт♦ Apr 20 '12 at 19:55

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