Homonyms, homophones, and homographs are words that are easily confused because they look alike or sound alike (or both) but have different meanings. These charts--which list some of the most common homonyms, homophones, and homographs--should help you to recognize the differences between many commonly confused words.
- accept/except to buy/by/bye (below)
- capital/capitol to eminent/imminent (page two)
- fair/fare to lie/lye (page three)
- meat/meet/mete to role/roll (page four)
- scene/seen to whine/wine (page five)
Homonyms, Homophones, & Homographs (A - B)
| accept - take in | except - other than | |
| ad - advertisement | add - join, combine | |
| advice - guidance | advise - recommend | |
| aid - assist, assistance | aide - one who gives assistance | |
| ail - to suffer poor health | ale - a beverage | |
| air - atmosphere | heir - one who inherits property | |
| aisle - a passage | I'll - contraction of I will | isle - island |
| allusion - an indirect reference | illusion - false appearance | |
| altar - table in a church | alter - to change | |
| ate - past tense of eat | eight - the number 8 | |
| bail - to clear water | bail - release of a prisoner | bale - a large bundle |
| band - a ring, something that binds | band - a group | banned - prohibited |
| bare - uncovered | bear - large animal | bear - support, yield |
| bases - starting points | bases - four stations on a baseball field | basis - a basic principle |
| beat - to strike, overcome | beat - exhausted | beet - a plant with red roots |
| blew - past tense of blow | blue - the color | |
| bread - baked food item | bred - produced | |
| buy - purchase | by - near, through | bye - goodbye |
