Wednesday 4 June 2008

Oronym

Q: What term describes words like "I scream" and "ice cream"? "Some others" and "some mothers"?

A: Oronym. In the case of Toyota and toy Yoda, our brains are faced with oronyms - virtually identical speech that can be interpreted in different ways. English is full of these devilish duos. For example,

- I scream versus ice cream,

- a notion versus an ocean,

- some others versus some mothers

See http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/words/

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