Introduction
In our everyday life we have been using many words that sound same but have different meanings, some of them have same spellings but different meanings, some of them have different spellings with different meanings, and some of them have more than two spellings having different meanings. Inadequate knowledge of such words often causes confusion and ambiguity in writing and listening of English languages. Even in reading we can take help from the general dictionary to find out the meaning of a particular word but without the knowledge of the shared homophones of such word, there exist a potential ambiguity when it comes across in writing, speaking, and listening as well. If someone writes fair when he wants to mean it fare, and if it goes to his ad, website, blog, tweet, newspaper column or anywhere else – it might cause for a confuse, misuse or abuse. In this case, even the software spell check might not protect him as both the words fair and fare are grammatically correct. In reality, almost everyone gets confused with these words at some point in their life. Appropriate knowledge of homophonic words alerts people when using such words in writing, listening and speaking, and thus makes it possible to avoid any confusion, misuse or abuse.
Generally we have the opportunity to learn these confusing words during the courses in elementary schools, secondary schools, higher secondary schools and colleges where only limited number of such words come across as a part of the specific curriculum. It does not provide even an idea of how many confusing words exist in English languages that have been frequently exposed in our practical life. Comprehensive study has revealed that the understanding of homophones is an essential part of mastering the English language. The dictionary of homophone is the outcome of intense research in this area.
The word `Homophone‘ is derived from the Greek word homo means same and phone means sound. The study of homophonic words includes the followings:
Homophone: ‘A homophone is a word that is pronounced exactly or nearly the same as another word but differs in meaning and is spelled differently, such as sea-see; son-sun; tailtale; bear-beer etc. Since they are usually spelt differently, so that when written they are clearly distinguishable, but in a speech-based interface they have the potential to cause ambiguity and confusion.
‘Homograph: ‘Homographs are words which are spelled the same, but have different meanings and are not necessarily pronounced the same. One example is the word bow, which has several meanings pronounced two different ways, such as a weapon for shooting arrows, or to bend at the waist; and desert (arid region) - desert (leave) etc.‘ Homonym: ‘Homonym can be troublesome because it may refer to three distinct classes of words. Homonyms may be words with identical pronunciations but different spellings and meanings, such as to, too, and two. Or they may be words with both identical pronunciations and identical spellings but different meanings, such as quail (the bird) and quail (to cringe). Finally, they may be words that are spelled alike but are different in pronunciation and meaning, such as the bow of a ship and bow that shoots arrows; Pen (a device for writing); Pen (a holding area for animals). The first and second types are sometimes called homophones, and the second and third types are sometimes called homographs—which makes naming the second type a bit confusing. Some language scholars prefer to limit homonym to the third type.‘
Heterograph: The word heterograph literally means 'different writing'. Heterographs are words that sound the same as other words, but they have different spellings and different meanings, such as to-too-two etc.
Multinym: ‘Multinym are words that sound the same but have more than two different meanings and spellings, such as Raise – to lift something up; Rays – sunbeams; Rase – to erase something; Raze – to knock something down; Rehs – sodium salt mixtures; Réis – plural of real (the currency of Portugal and Brazil); Res – plural of re, etc.‘ This book provides an opportunity to learn a wide range of homophonic words with their meanings in Bengali and their uses in the sentences. It contains more than 1200 sets with about 2500 confusing words. This is an invaluable book for the English language learners,
students, teachers and professionals. It canserve as a quick reference for writers, copy editors, businessmen, officials, bloggers, tweeters etc. It can also be used as a supplement to dictionaries for anyone who needs to look up a word. It could be very interesting for word puzzle fans.