Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 May 26

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May 26

Similarly spelled words

Miss, moss, mass, mess. They all sound similar, so they're phonetically similar, and they're all spelled similarly so they're ???? similar. Is there a word for being spelled similarly?

They may or may not sound similar, being spelled similarly, e.g. the English bar and the German bär. Everything I google sends me to homographs, because Google doesn't seem to understand the difference between being similar but not the same. Thanks! 2A00:23C8:4384:FB01:31CE:9E6F:5A41:5803 (talk) 22:08, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Orthographically similar? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:10, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Most of them have short vowels, but moss has an aw sound in the standard American dialect, different from the short o sound in the word "ox". Georgia guy (talk) 22:12, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Thank you both. Yes, the words may or may not sound similar, and that I don't mind about, I was just using it as an example that we have a way of describing words that sound similar but I couldn't think of one for words that our spelled similarly. I actually considered orthographically similar but judging by our article on it, I wasn't sure. 2A00:23C8:4384:FB01:31CE:9E6F:5A41:5803 (talk) 22:18, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Although rare, there's also the phenomenon where a word could be read out differently with different meanings, although spelled the same, such as read/ read and lead/ lead. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 22:30, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Yes, that's the opposite of what I'm looking for. Those are homographs. I'm looking for words spelled similarly, not the same, and they may or may not sound alike. 2A00:23C8:4384:FB01:31CE:9E6F:5A41:5803 (talk) 22:36, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

Do you mean alliteration? Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:19, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Sadly, that's also something differen't to what I was looking for. 2A00:23C8:4384:FB01:E9CE:806F:2617:CBB5 (talk) 15:06, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Homeograph – which is a homeograph of homograph.  --Lambiam 08:25, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

According to your link, homeograph and homograph are not homophones. The "e" in homeograph (as with other words starting with homeo) is pronounced, not silent. --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:44, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Homeograph might be the best suggestion so far, although the classification of "similar" is by its nature somewhat vague... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:25, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Then there's the case of words that are mistaken for each other. A couple that come to mind are "mute" vs. "moot", and also the non-existent bird called a "morning dove". --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:25, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

I think you're describing malapropisms. 2A00:23C8:4384:FB01:E9CE:806F:2617:CBB5 (talk) 15:06, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

• Is the OP asking about minimal pairs? --Jayron32 12:15, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Thank you all SO MUCH! Lambiam -- homeograph is the exact thing I was trying to describe, thank you. Jayron32 -- minimal pairs are what I described, thanks for teaching me something new. 2A00:23C8:4384:FB01:E9CE:806F:2617:CBB5 (talk) 15:06, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

See also assonance. 64.235.97.146 (talk) 15:31, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Thank you! 2A00:23C8:4384:FB01:AC:49AC:A1C:7B4D (talk) 00:29, 28 May 2022 (UTC)