Homophone 同音詞 (同音词)

tóngyīncí · from Greek

What is a homophone?

A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another but has a different meaning, and often a different spelling, like flower and flour.

Chinese is extraordinarily rich in homophones because of its small syllable inventory, which fuels puns, taboos and lucky symbols. Japanese and Korean have many too, mostly among Sino-derived words. In writing, characters usually disambiguate what speech cannot.

Examples

flower / flour; 書 shū (book) / 輸 shū (lose); 鐘 zhōng (clock) / 終 zhōng (end), so 送鐘 is taboo; Japanese 橋 hashi / 箸 hashi; Korean 사 sa (four / death 死)

Kungfucius says: In Mandarin, never give a clock, never split a pear, and never trust a pun-free sentence.