• 3-minute read
• 25th November 2022

How to Use a Homograph in Your Writing

Homographs, not to be confused with homonyms or homophones, are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. They can be verbs, nouns, or adjectives with or without the same pronunciation. For example, a bat is both an animal and a piece of equipment used in baseball.

Here are some more examples of homographs in sentences:

How to use Homographs in Your Writing

Homographs can be used in your writing to create interest or humor for your readers. Many authors and poets use them to create puns and double entendres. Homographs are especially good literary devices for writing poetry.

Puns

A pun is a silly joke exploiting the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings. That is, puns are jokes made specifically with homographs. You can use puns in your writing to incorporate some dad-joke humor.

Here are some examples of punny jokes:

Here, “bright” is a homograph meaning intelligent as well as shining, so the teacher puts on sunglasses to shade his eyes from his students’ cleverness.

In this pun, “plaque” is a homograph meaning a type of award, usually some wooden or metal object to commemorate an achievement, and a sticky deposit on teeth that dentists remove.

This joke explores the homograph “remote,” meaning both a device used to control a TV and distant/far from (as in far from being funny). In this case, the pun also makes use of the synonyms “controller” and “remote.”

Double Entendres

A double entendre is a word or phrase open to two interpretations, one of which is usually risqué or indecent.

Here’s an example:

On the one hand, the writer could be describing how they became distracted by fruit, but most readers would instantly associate the word “melons” with the slang term for a woman’s breasts.

Homographs Used for Double Meaning (Minus the Risqué)

Of course, you can opt to use homographs in your writing to create double meaning in a general sense.

Here are some famous examples:

In this quote, every time the conversation is pointed (directed) at Pip, it is like a point (a sharp object) in him. This is used to show the cruel environment Pip is in.

At this point in the play, Mercutio is using “grave” to mean he will be a serious man and also signify his fate in the grave – death. Shakespeare is using comedy to make light of Mercutio’s misfortune.

Poetry

Homographs can be used in poetry to create double meaning, ambiguity, and metaphors.

Let’s look at an example:

In this poem, “rose” functions as a flower, and the past tense of the verb “to rise.” Whilst the verb might at first seem to be the more relevant meaning, references to “scent” and, “blue-green perfume” conjure up a link to the floral, fragrant meaning of “rose”, making the writers intended meaning ambiguous.

Proofreading and Editing

Homographs are fun to use in your writing to create humor, interest, or another layer of meaning for your readers. If you need help with homographs or other literary devices in your writing, Proofed will proofread your first 500 words for free!