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

= 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? -- Jayron 32 12:15, 27 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Thank you all SO MUCH! Lambiam -- homeograph is the exact thing I was trying to describe, thank you. Jayron 32 -- 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)