Homophones = rite, write, right, wright

rite / write / right / wright

These all sound like the same word, but....

• rite refers to a religious act or ceremony.  Example:  "Our ancestors celebrated fertility rites."
• write refers to the act of writing.  Example:  "She promised to write to me while she's on vacation."  It also means to spell.  Example:  "How do you write your name?"
• right basically means correct or acceptable.  Examples:  "It wouldn't be right to ignore his request."
• wright refers to a builder or creator; one who constructs or repairs something.  This word is often used in combination.  Examples:  "She's a playwright" or "He's a shipwright."

Aren't words funny?  (And fun!)  These words are homophones.

ho·mo·phone /ˈhäməˌfōn,ˈhōməˌfōn/ noun (plural noun: homophones) = each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling.

Here are a few more examples of homophones:

• ad — add
• brake — break
• buy — by
• cellar — seller
• cite — site
• dual — duel
• eye — I
• flew — flu
• grate — great
• knew — new
• mail — male
• one — won
• overdo — overdue
• pain — pane
• plain — plane
• real — reel
• rest — wrest
• sail — sale
• tail — tale
• threw — through
• vain — vane

Can you think of other homophones?  Please share them with us in the comments.

Three homophones: rain, rein, reign

I'm writing about these homophones because of an email announcement:  "I will be taking over the ... reigns ..."  Oh, is he becoming royalty?  No, but I hope he finds a good editor.  What he meant to say was that he is taking over the REINS.  He will be guiding this entity, like a rider guides a horse, using reins.

While "rain," "rein," and "reign" sound exactly the same (homophones), their meanings differ completely.  Let's define these three very different words:

• rain = water falling from the sky.
• rein = a strap used to guide a horse.
• reign = the period of time when a monarch rules.

We might say about the first one, "It looks like it will rain today, so take your umbrella."

The second one is used mostly in the plural sense ("take the reins"), meaning to take control of something.  Why?  Beause the leather straps attached to a horse's bit is used by a horse's rider to control and guide it.  A family might say:  "We're low on money until payday, so we need to reign in our spending."

Reign (the third meaning) is the time during which a king or queen rules a country.  As a verb, it means to hold royal power.  It specifically pertains to monarchies, authority, or dominance.  Examples:"Queen Elizabeth II had a remarkably long reign."

Homophones ~ shown and shone

I got an email recently where the writer mentions a light that had "shown" on something.  Oops!  She meant "shone."  Those two words are NOT interchangeable.  Two words that sound alike are called homophones.  These two are both verbs, but ...

On the one hand, "shown" is the past tense or past participle of "show."  Example:  "She had shown him the proper way to use the flashlight and to direct it downwards when he was around people."

On the other hand, "shone" is the past tense or past participle of "shine," as in a light on something.  Example:  "The child had accidentally shone his flashlight in her eyes."

Road, rode, rowed

I was reading Greg Freeman: A Gentleman, A Gentle Man (2003, newspaper columns by Greg Freeman, 191 pages).  On pages 132-134, he wrote about Trevelyn Zander, a man who began a coast-to-coast trip in 1999 — on a lawn tractor.  He pulled a small trailer that said, "Help mow down prostate cancer with research and education."

Trevelyn had been diagnosed with prostate cancer a couple of years earlier, had his prostate removed, and wanted to raise money for research and education.  That's the photo of him I found with his obituary; he died in November 2022 at the age of 95.  He lived over two decades more.

So why am I sharing that particular story?  Because donors who gave $500 would get a T-shirt saying, "I know a guy who road a lawn tractor coast to coast."  Read that quote again, if you missed the homophone.

Word of the Day

homophone /ˈhoʊməfoʊn / noun = a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning and/or spelling.  Examples:  "Flour" and "flower" are homophones because they are pronounced the same, but you can’t bake a cake using daffodils.  Other examples are write and right, meet and meat, peace and piece, bare and bear.

You have to listen to the context to know which word someone means if homophones are spoken aloud.  If they say they like your jeans (genes?), they’re probably talking about your pants and not your height and eye color, but you would have to figure it out from the situation.

Credit:  "Homophone."  Dictionary, Vocabulary.com.  Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.

Back to the fellow on the lawn tractor.  Yes, he "rode" a lawn tractor, but he did it on the "road."  You know how I love playing with words, and I immediately thought of a third word that sounds the same:  "rowed."  I have no idea what kind of lawn tractor the man had, but there's an example of a more recent one at the top.  Should I also show you a boat being "rowed"?  Okay, here's a man rowing a dinghy:

Editing Blooper of the Day

Someone wrote — in a published article — about a dog as the "newest edition to their family."  English words can be confusing.  It sounds like they were editing their family, rather than adding to it.

The two words "addition" and "edition" are homophones.  That means they sound the same, but the meanings are very different.  The dog was added to their family, so the correct word should have been "addition."  See more examples on the right ----->  Sometimes three words are homophones.  They sound alike, but they are spelled differently and mean three different things.  Here are some examples:

rays — raze — raise

there — they're — their

rite — write — right

peddle — petal — pedal

Let's laugh

But first, a daffodil blooming in Gatlinburg, Tennessee,

on Friday (2-11-22), while we still have snow on the ground in St. Louis.

Thanks to Barbara Clark for the photo posted on Facebook.

Now, a blonde joke for my daughter.

(Do you still collect them, Barbara?)

Words

Words (and books) are always on my mind.  I thought of this poem when I read the word "raze" in The Midnight Library (p. 156).  Words having the same pronunciation but different meanings are called homophones.  I read "raze" and immediately thought of the homophone "raise."  When people raise a barn (as in having a barn raising), they are constructing that barn; but when they raze the barn, they are tearing it down.

Books

 

I did finally find a book that grabbed me enough to finish it:  The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, that I mentioned above (2020, fiction, 288 pages, 8/10).  Next, I'll read the 2021 novel Fresh Scars by Donna Mumma (305 pages).  I've also started reading this booklet that belonged to my friend Donna, who taught middle school English:

Character Education Journal Topics ~ by Terri Simpson and Jodie Priess, 2001, nonfiction.  It has 200 bookmark-sized pages of writing prompts related to character education for students in grades 4-8.  The  illustration shows one of the prompts.

Dovetail ~ by Karen McQuestion, 2020, fiction, 353 pages

Joe Arneson’s ordinary life is upended by troubling dreams of himself as a different man in another place and time.  It isn’t until he visits his estranged grandmother, Pearl, in her Wisconsin hometown that a startling connection emerges.  Drawn into his family’s past, Joe discovers secrets weighing on the old woman’s soul:  the tragic death of her sister Alice a half century ago and its ripple effect on all who loved her.  Digging into the events of that summer in 1916, Joe is convinced that his recurrent visions relate to Alice’s untimely passing and to the beloved man she meant to marry.  With the help of Kathleen, a local woman Joe’s fallen for, the puzzles of the past start falling into place.  As uncovered truths bring Joe and Kathleen closer together, they also reveal a new danger.  Joe’s dreams may be a warning ― from one star-crossed couple to another.

I added this new book to my Kindle recently, partly because I like a comment that it "was written without profanity and gratuitous violence and sex."  Do you remember my comment about the gratuitous 4-letter words in Carl Hiaasen's Squeeze Me?  It was very annoying.

Deb at Readerbuzz hosts Sunday Salon.

Oh, no! I missed National Ice Cream Day!

"The third Sunday in July is National Ice Cream Day the United States.  It was established by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, who also declared the entire month of July as National Ice Cream Month."

Oh, good.  That means I can eat some ice cream right now, because we are still at the peak of summer heat (which was the whole point).  Yes, of course I have some ice cream in my freezer.  My favorite is Coyote Tracks from Schnucks, a grocery store near me.

Animal: Portraits of Eighty-Eight Animals & One Shy Enchanted Boy ~ by Tein Lucasson, 2022, animal photography, 192 pages, 8/10

What would an animal look like if it were a human?  The question is actually a contradiction in terms, and Tein Lucasson's answer is as humorous as it is creative.  With digital photo technology, he combines pet portraits with human poses, celebrating each animal's unique personality, while drawing on his passion for costume and art history.  Open up Animal and discover a raccoon sporting a sailor's suit, an aristocratic pig enthroned above a roulette table, and a giraffe grinning in its thick wool sweater.  (And if you don't speak English, each page has translations in English, German, and Italian.)

Week in Review

• On Tuesday, my post was about a book by Rachel Maddow, HERE.
• On Wednesday, I wrote about three homophones, HERE.
• My Book Beginning on Friday, HERE, was about a book by Alice Sebold.

Hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz,

we bloggers gather at separate computers in different time 

 zones — to share what we have been doing during the week.

Words ~ hoard and horde

"The five-letter homophones hoard and horde are occasionally confused for one another," Merriam-Webster says.  I subscribe to M-W's Word of the Day, and these two words were included in today's email.

• Hoard can be a noun or a verb, referring to a supply of something kept hidden away, or the act of collecting and storing said supply.  A hoarder is usually someone who obsessively and unnecessarily keeps things they do not need.
• Horde, on the other hand, refers to a large group of loosely organized people.  Often horde carries the connotation of wildness or fierceness.

Click on this link to read more about getting these words right.

Two new books ~ one bought, one borrowed

What's in It for Me? : Finding Ourselves in Biblical Narratives ~ by Stephen Lewis Fuchs, 2014, theology

The world is rapidly dividing between those who take biblical narratives as the literal word of God — claiming that they are historically and scientifically true — and those who dismiss those narratives as quaint or even foolish fairy tales.  Fuchs invites the reader to discover a middle ground that takes biblical narratives seriously without regard to their historical or scientific truth.  The "truth" of these stories has nothing to do with, "Did this really happen?"  Their truth emerges in the valuable lessons these stories can teach all of us.  As we walk the rich middle ground of biblical narrative, we shall keep one question constantly in mind:  Where am I in the text?  In other words, what do these stories teach ME that can help me to be a more self aware, caring, and compassionate human being?

From the Introduction

"The God of the Torah wants us to use our power to create a just, caring, and compassionate society.  We human beings have godlike abilities, and the Almighty has set us in charge of, and responsible for, the earth.  We have awesome power.  We can use it for good or for ill.  Since we have free will, the choice is ours" (loc. 171).

P is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever ~ by Raj Haldar, illustrated by Maria Tina Beddia, 2018, children's picture book

Turning the traditional idea of an alphabet book on its head, P is for Pterodactyl is perfect for anyone who has ever been stumped by silent letters or confused by absurd homophones.  This whimsical, unique book takes silent letter entries like "K is for Knight" a step further with "The noble knight's knife nicked the knave's knee."  Lively illustrations provide context clues, and alliterative words help readers navigate text like "a bright white gnat is gnawing on my gnocchi" with ease.  Everyone from early learners to grown-up grammarians will love this wacky book where "A is for Aisle," but "Y is definitely not for Why."

I bought the first book for my Kindle, but the children's book is from the library.  Yes, I'm fascinated by widely different ideas.

Wednesday Words ~ toe and tow

Someone wrote, "He needs to tow the line."  Tow and toe sound alike, but they don't mean the same thing.  They are homophones.  Wanting to use these two words for a Wednesday post, I googled "tow toe" images and discovered these "pink toe trucks."  They are actual tow trucks in Seattle.  The owner obviously had a great sense of humor, and I'm sure people remember it.  The truck in front, the one with the left big toe, was on its way to a history museum when this picture was taken.

Toe = five on each foot
Tow = to pull something

Wednesday Words from a memoir

Wednesday Words ~ cord/chord

"In the medical literature, the vocal 'cord' is a mere 'fold,' a piece of gristle that strives to reach out and touch its twin, thus producing the possibility of sound effects.  But I feel that there must be a deep relationship with the word 'chord':  the resonant vibration that can stir memory, produce music, evoke love, bring tears, move crowds to pity and mobs to passion.  We may not be, as we used to boast, the only animals capable of speech.  But we are the only ones who can deploy vocal communication for sheer pleasure and recreation, combining it with our two other boasts of reason and humor to produce higher syntheses.  To lose this ability is to be deprived of an entire range of faculty:  It is assuredly to die more than a little" (p. 54 of Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, 2012, memoir, 9/10).

Hitchens was dying of lung cancer and cancer of the esophagus when he wrote this book, so the problem specifically involved his vocal cords.  He was a writer and a speaker, so not being able to speak or put words on paper was a terrible thought.

"I often grandly say that writing is not just my living and my livelihood but my very life, and it's true. Almost like the threatened loss of my voice, which is currently being alleviated by some temporary injections into my vocal folds, I feel my personality and identity dissolving as I contemplate dead hands and the loss of the transmission belts that connect me to writing and thinking" (p. 71).

A variety of cords

The words "cord" and "chord" are homophones; they sound alike, but they're spelled differently.  When I think of a "cord," it is something like an electrical cord or the cord I use to charge my computer or a cord to tie up a package.  So why would vocal "folds" (as Hitchens says above) use the spelling "cord"?  Yes, that's the correct spelling.  More research tells me that any time the word is used in anatomy, it is always spelled "cord" rather than "chord."  Hmm, interesting.  So we have spinal cord, vocal cord, umbilical cord, etc.

Another Wednesday Word ~ inanition

"I would often find fatalism and resignation washing drearily over me as I failed to battle my general inanition.  Only two things rescued me from betraying myself and letting go:  a wife who would not hear of me talking in this boring and useless way, and various friends who also spoke freely.  Oh, and the regular painkiller" (pp. 68-69 of Mortality).

Definition:  in·a·ni·tion /ˌinəˈniSHən/ = exhaustion caused by lack of nourishment, lack of mental or spiritual vigor and enthusiasm.  An example:  "She was thinking that old age bred inanition."  Another example I found:  "Anorexia caused severe weakness in the young girl since the inanition of nutrition in her body could lead to her death."

I don't remember ever running across this word, so I also researched it and found this professor bird's list of words helpful.  I wondered about its opposite and found that Professor Birdy has another helpful list.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme by BermudaOnion where we share new words that we have encountered or spotlight words that we love.  These are the words that intrigued me this week.

Chalk vs. Chock

Someone wrote that her car was "chalk full of clothes."  Above is a picture of chalk, something that children use to mark on their driveways or a teacher uses to write on a chalkboard.  (We called them "blackboards" when I was in school, back in the dark ages of the 1940s.)  What that someone meant was that her car was CHOCK full of clothes.  That means it was "full to overflowing."  The words are homophones . . . or very close.