Homophones and Homographs: An American Dictionary [Hardcover]

James B. Hobbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1999

This expanded third edition defines and cross-references 7,781 homophones and 1,552 homographs (up from 7,000 and 1,400 in the 2d ed.). Reviews of the earlier editions: "The amount of material...is considerable"-Booklist/RBB; "a fine job.... Recommended"-Choice; "the best roster of these phenoma"-Wilson Library Bulletin; "a good choice for any library"-RQ. As the most comprehensive compilation of American homophones (words that sound alike) and homographs (look-alikes), this latest edition serves well where even the most modern spell-checkers and word processors fail-although rain, reign, and rein may be spelled correctly, the context in which these words may appropriately be used is not obvious to a computer.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Readers may be familiar with homonyms, which are words with different meanings that are pronounced and spelled the same way (such as plane, which as a verb can mean to make smooth or to soar in the air and as a noun can mean a level, a type of tree, or a means of transportation). The less familiar homophones are words with different meanings and spellings that sound alike (raise, rays, and raze) or nearly alike (accept and except). And homographs look alike but are pronounced differently (minute, a unit of time, vs. minute, very small). Hobbs developed this valuable resource, first published in 1986, after helping a friend's child generate hundreds of homophones for a contest. The bulk of it is devoted to 7,781 homophones arranged in alphabetical order, followed by 1,552 homographs, also in alphabetical order and aided by See references. Typical entries feature a one- or two-sentence definition, and entries for homographs include pronunciation information. The annotated bibliography is more than seven excellent pages in length, but the nine-page appendix is a confusing array of homophones, homographs, and words that function as both. Useful for larger collections, wordsmiths, spelling enthusiasts, and punsters.AElizabeth Connor, Medical Univ. of South California, Charleston
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Expanded edition defines and cross-references 7,781 homophones and 1,552 homographs, up from 7,000 and 1,400 in the previous edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub; 3rd edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786406100
• ISBN-13: 978-0786406104
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,697,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful and useful book, October 8, 2001

By 

Kevin B. Cohen (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homophones and Homographs: An American Dictionary (Hardcover)

This is a delightful and useful book. At least three kinds of people should buy it:

(1) People in computational linguistics and natural language processing. If you work in speech recognition, you need homophones to test (or illustrate challenges for) speech recognition systems. If you work in natural language processing, you need homographs to test your system's ability to handle lexical ambiguity. This book is a great source for both.

(2) People in phonetics and sociolinguistics. If you do experimental work in these fields, you want lots of minimal pairs. Although they're not labelled as such, this book will point you towards lots of minimal pairs for flapping, glide raising, and other phonological phenomena of English.

(3) People interested in the English language in general. I came across lots of interesting and cool words in here, and enjoy just flipping through this book.

In addition, the book is beautifully printed and bound. I would have expected it to cost a lot more.