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Starting in 1996,
Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the
Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20160825095711/http://people.sc.fsu.edu:80/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/multinyms.html
Multinyms
Triple/Quadruple/Quintuple/Sextuple Homonyms
According to some definitions, a homonym is a word with the
same pronunciation as, but different meaning than, another word.
Thus, homonyms come in pairs (at least). However, some remarkable
homonyms come in triples, as you may here behold.
Triplets:
-
ade, aid, aide
-
aisle, I'll, isle
-
ait, ate, eight
-
aye, eye, I
-
axel, axil, axle
-
bald, balled, bawled
-
bases, basis, basses
(distinguishable in careful speech.)
-
beau, bo, bow
-
bight, bite, byte
-
boar, boor, bore
(distinguishable in careful speech.)
-
bold, bolled, bowled
-
bole, boll, bowl
-
born, borne, bourn/bourne
-
borough, burro, burrow
(distinguishable in careful speech.)
-
braise, brays, braze
-
birr, bur, burr
-
call, caul, col
-
cedar, ceder, seeder
-
ceiling, sealing, seeling
-
censer, censor, sensor
-
cent, scent, sent
-
Chile, chili, chilly
-
chord, cord, cored
-
coal, cole, kohl
-
coarse, corse, course
-
coign, coin, quoin
-
coward, cowered, cowherd
-
does, doughs, doze
(does is the plural of doe, "a female deer")
-
earn, erne, urn
-
eaves, eves, Yves
-
ewes, use, yews
-
fain, fane, feign
-
faro, farrow, pharoah
-
firs, furs, furze
-
flew, flu, flue
-
for, fore, four
-
frees, freeze, frieze
-
gild, gilled, guild
-
heal, heel, he'll
-
hi, hie, high
-
holey, holy, wholly
-
idle, idol, idyll
(idyll has a variant spelling "idyl" which we're not counting)
-
knead, kneed, need
-
knot, naught, not
-
knows, noes, nose
-
Lapps, laps, lapse
-
lays, laze, leis
-
liar, lier, lyre
-
load, lode, lowed
-
mead, Mede, meed
-
meat, meet, mete
-
mold, moled, mould
-
mhorr, moor, more
-
nay, nee, neigh
-
pair, pare, pear
-
palate, palette, pallet
-
plainer, planar, planer
-
polar, poler, poller
-
poor, pore, pour
-
psis, sighs, size
("psi" is more properly pronounced "P-SEE" but then, we're not Greek so we
can say it how we want to!)
-
rain, reign, rein
-
raiser, razer, razor
-
rapped, rapt, wrapped
-
read, rede, reed
-
road, rode, rowed
-
rood, rude, rued
-
rheumy, roomie (a roommate), roomy
-
roos, rues, ruse
(roos is the plural of roo, a kangaroo)
-
sacs, sacks, sax
-
shier, shire, shyer
-
sic, sick, Sikh
-
sics, Sikhs, six;
-
sign, sine, syne
-
Sioux, sou, sue
-
Sol, sole, soul
-
sold, soled, souled
-
taught, taut, tot
-
their, there, they're
-
to, too, two
-
toad, toed, towed
-
ton, tonne, tun
-
vail, vale, veil
-
vain, vane, vein
-
vial, vile, viol
-
wail, wale, whale
-
ware, wear, where
-
way, weigh, whey
-
weal, we'll, wheel
-
weather, wether, whether
-
whined, wind, wined
Quadruplets:
-
adds, ads, adz, adze
-
bi, buy, by, bye
-
carat, caret, carrot, karat
-
cees, seas, sees, seize
(cees is the plural of cee which is a name for the letter "C"
or the school grade, or any thing shaped like a "C").
-
cense, cents, scents, sense
-
cere, sear, seer, sere
-
cinque, sink, sync, synch
-
cite, cyte, sight, site
(cyte is a mature germ cell)
-
crews, cruise, crus, cruse
(crus is the plural of cru, a French vineyard whose name is
used to identify wine)
-
dew, do, doux, due
(doux is champagne that is at least seven percent sugar)
-
eau, o, oh, owe
-
ewe, yew, you, U
-
gnu, knew, new, nu
-
heigh, hi, hie, high
-
hoard, horde, hoared, whored
-
mall, moll, maul, mawl
-
medal, meddle, metal, mettle
(distinguishable in careful speech.)
-
oar, o'er, or, ore
-
pairish, parish, pearish, perish
-
peak, peek, peke, pique
-
praise, prase, prays, preys
-
rhos, roes, rose, rows
-
right, rite, wright, write;
-
teas, tease, tees, tis;
(tees is the plural of tee, a name for the letter "T" or for
things shaped like a "T", and has the variant T's which we're not
counting. tis is the plural of ti, a name
for one step of the musical scale)
-
wade, wayed, weighed, wheyed
-
weald, wealed, wheeled, wield;
Quintuplets:
-
seau, sew, so, soe, sow,
(a seau is a "pottery pail" popularly used in 18th century table settings,
but now on backorder;
soe is a kind of large wooden tub,
the sow we have here is the one meaning to plant)
Sextuplets:
-
air, are, e'er, ere, err, heir
Septuplets:
-
raise, rays, rase, raze, rehs, réis, res
(rase is a verb meaning "to erase",
rehs is the plural of reh, a mixture of sodium salts found as
an efflorescence in India,
réis is the plural of
real, a currency unit of Portugal and Brazil,
res is the plural of re, a name for one step of the musical scale)
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Steve Schaefer for disqualifying "idyl", and
for proposing the "medal/meddle/metal/mettle" quadruplet.
Thanks to Terry Stickels for sharing the results of her
own research.
Thanks to David Norton for offering a number of new homonyms.
Thanks to Walton McNutt for the "their", "mall", "ton" and "taught" families.
Thanks to Carlos Augusto for correcting my explanation of réis.
You can go to
the wordplay home page.
Last modified on 30 October 2015.