Homonyms, Homophones and Homographs
The standards correlation for this activity is coming soon!
VocabularySpellingCity’s spelling lists will help students learn homonyms, homophones (sound-alike words), and homographs and have fun all at the same time! Resources include printable worksheets, videos, online games, and various teaching strategies for Kindergarten through High School. Here you can customize a unique lesson to illustrate homonyms vs homophones vs homographs.
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.
bake with flour
| bow = to bend down
bow = ribbon
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 (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 meanings and often have different spellings as well. 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 are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and are often pronounced differently as well. 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.
- List 1: peak, peek, seam, seem, feat, feet, steal, steel, flea, flee
- List 2: male, mail, pale, pail, days, daze, rays, raise, vane, vain, vein
- List 3: pair, pare, pear, stair, stare, loan, lone, flour, flower, principle, principal
5th Grade Homophones:
- List 1: throne, thrown, doe, dough, clothes, close, waist, waste, brake, break
- List 2: cent, scent, sent, wear, where, site, sight, cite, berry, bury
- List 3: which, witch, pedal, peddle, bored, board, sweet, suite, creek, creak
6th Grade Homophones:
- List 1: affect, effect, allowed, aloud, aisle, isle, I’ll, patience, patients
- List 2: weather, whether, accept, except, ceiling, sealing, hanger, hangar, alter, altar
7th Grade Homophones:
- List 1: vile, vial, wave, waive, addition, edition, horse, hoarse, manor, manner
- List 2: sensor, censor, bizarre, bazaar, heel, heal, carrot, carat, miner, minor
8th Grade Homophones:
- List 1: sole, soul, rain, reign, rein, pause, paws, wail, whale, heard, herd
- List 2: naval, navel, sheer, shear, air, heir, scene, seen, presence, presents
9th Grade Homophones:
- List 1: cellar, seller, allusion, illusion, capital, capitol, symbol, cymbal, compliment, complement
- List 2: boarder, border, council, counsel, genes, jeans, bridal, bridle, incite, insight
- List 3: whine, wine, mall, maul, muscle, mussel, slay, sleigh, course, coarse
10th Grade Homophones:
- List 1: discreet, discrete, loot, lute, currant, current, profit, prophet, borough, burrow
- List 2: carrot, karat, moose, mousse, ascent, assent, lessen, lesson, aid, aide
11th Grade Homophones:
- List 1: dual, duel, cereal, serial, idle, idol, faint, feint, wrote, rote
- List 2: baron, barren, birth, berth, knead, need, mantle, mantel, leased, least
12th Grade Homophones:
- colonel, kernel, palette, pallet, palate, morning, mourning, canvas, canvass, gorilla, guerilla