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Paronyms are words that have different lexical meanings, but share similarities in pronunciation or spelling. Paronyms contrast with homonyms, which are words with different meaning having the same pronunciation or spelling. Examples of English paronyms include:
- alternately and alternatively
- collision and collusion
- conjuncture and conjecture
- eclipse and ellipse
- excise and exercise
- prolepsis and proslepsis
- continuous and contiguous
- affect and effect
- upmost and utmost
- deprecate and depreciate
The term paronym can also refer to words that are derived from the same root, i.e. cognate words.[1]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "paronym". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)