English

Alternative forms

• homeophone, homoeophone, homœophone

Noun

homoiophone ‎(plural homoiophones)

1. A word similar — but not identical — in pronunciation with another; compare homophone.
   • 1886: Stephen Denison Peet [ed.], The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, volume 8, page 349 (Jameson & Morse)

     This was through the existence of homophones and homoiophones in a language, of words with the same or similar sounds, but with diverse significations.

   • 1893: Johan Harold Josua Lindahl, Description of a Skull of Megalonyx Leidyi, page 56 (American Philosophical Society)

     This was through the existence of homophones and homoiophones, that is, of words with different meanings but the same or nearly the same sound.

   • 1911, July 6^th: Robert Seymour Bridges, Correspondence of Robert Bridges and Henry Bradley, 1900–1923, page 81 (The Clarendon Press)

     Have you any idea as to what ought to be done with what I believe you pepel call homophones or homoiophones. I hope that is not the right name for them. But is it not foolish to have an educated nation that refuses to readjust such inconveniences?

   • 1924: American Oriental Society Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 44, page 28

     By way of bringing this intricate and tedious dissertation to an end, allow me to recite a short specimen of the thing itself — a Siamese “jaw-breaker” which, for ingenious bewilderment by means of homoiophones, I am sure does not fall behind our “Theophilus Thistle the Thistle-sifter,” while in coloratura of intonation it certainly leaves that far behind.

   • 1987: Alan Allport [ed.], Language Perception and Production: Relationships Between Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, page 237 (Academic Press; ISBN 0120527502, 9780120527502)

     Another explanation relates to the actual use of homophony-generating rules; perhaps pseudohomophones are not homophones but rather ‘homoiophones’, that is, phonologically similar but not exactly equal to their word mates.