What do you call a word that has different meanings but is spelled the same way?

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in german it's called "Teekesselwort"...maybe you can find a translation?

A heteronym is a word that is spelled and sounds the same but has different meanings. An example of this is the word 'lick'. You can lick an ice cream (eating using only your tongue) or lick someone in a fight (defeat the person physically). Not to be confused with the term homonym. Homonyms sound the same but are not always spelled the same way. A good example of this are the words 'bear' and 'bare'. Bear (the animal) and bare (lacking decoration or to undress) are spelled differently, yet have different definitions.

Ambiguous

The word ambiguous identifies words or concepts that have two or more potential meanings. However, it differs from Heteronym in that the meaning is not clear due to a missing context. For example the word "saw" in the following phrase is ambigous:

"I see said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw"

It is not clear from the message whether the blind man began to see again after he picked up the hammer, or if he picked up a tool called a saw in addition to the hammer.

First answer by ID1467625256. Last edit by Joepoidog. Contributor trust: 722 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 25 [recommend question]

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