Homonyms Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The phenomenon is polysemy.

Polysemy is the case of one word having several related meanings, all derived from a common core. 'Head', for example, can mean the top part of the body, the leader of an organisation or the top of a page, and all these senses are connected by the idea of 'top' or 'chief'.

Homonymy and homonyms are different words that happen to share a form but have unrelated meanings, such as 'bank' of a river and 'bank' for money. A homograph is a word spelled like another but different in meaning and often in pronunciation, such as 'lead' (metal) and 'lead' (guide).

Answer: B

It is known as homonymy.

Homonymy is the relation between words that are identical in both sound and spelling but unrelated in meaning, such as 'bat' (the animal) and 'bat' (used in cricket), or 'bank' of a river and a 'bank' for money.

Homophones share only the sound and differ in spelling ('right' and 'write'). Homographs share only the spelling and may differ in sound ('lead' the metal and 'lead' to guide). Polysemy is one word with several related meanings, whereas homonymy involves unrelated meanings.

Answer: C

The proverb is Where there is a will, there is a way.

Where introduces the place or situation, and there is the dummy subject of 'there is' in both clauses. So the blanks take Where, there, there.

Their is a possessive ('their house') and can never stand before 'is a will' or 'is a way', which rules out every option using it. Wear (put on clothing) and Were (past of 'be') are sound-alikes of 'where' that make no sense at the start of the sentence.

Answer: A

The words are stairs, stares.

The two blanks are homophones. You fall down a flight of stairs (steps), and people looking at you without helping give you stares (fixed looks). The sentence contrasts the attention she got, many stares, with the help she did not get.

'stairs, stairs' makes her receive steps, 'stares, stairs' has her fall down looks, and 'stares, stares' does both wrongly.

Answer: C

The sentence reads “Inhaling the smoke from a burning tyre could tire you quickly.”

The first blank needs a noun for the thing that burns: tyre, the rubber covering of a wheel (spelt tire in American English). The second blank follows the modal could, so it needs a verb: tire, to make weary or exhausted.

Tier is a noun meaning a row or level, as in a tiered cake, and is not a verb at all, so options ending in tier fail. tire / tyre puts the verb spelling in the noun slot and a noun in the verb slot; tyre is never used as a verb. The question rests on the British spelling the paper follows, where tyre is the noun and tire the verb.

Answer: B

The blanks take They're, their, there: "They're bringing their books from there."

The first blank needs a subject and verb, so it is the contraction they're (they are). The second needs a possessive before 'books', which is their. The third needs a place after 'from', which is the adverb there, answering 'From where'.

'Their, they're, there' puts a possessive where the subject and verb belong. 'There, their, they're' begins with a place word and ends with a contraction that cannot follow 'from'. 'They're, there, there' uses a place word where the possessive is needed.

Answer: D

The sentence reads The fare is too high for it to be considered fair.

A fare is the price charged for a journey, so it is the thing that can be 'too high'. Fair means just or reasonable, which is what a high price fails to be considered. The pair is a classic homophone trap: both words sound the same but only this order makes sense.

'fair / fare' swaps the two, so the sentence would call the fairness too high and the price reasonable. 'faer' is not an English word. 'fare / fare' repeats the noun where an adjective is needed after 'considered'.

Answer: C

The word is conscience.

The speaker refuses to support a proposal on moral grounds: it is his inner sense of right and wrong, his conscience, that 'will not permit it'.

The other words sound similar but do not fit. Conscious is an adjective meaning aware, and cannot follow 'My'. A consensus is general agreement among a group, not something one person owns. Consent is permission given, and 'my consent will not permit it' is circular; the sentence needs the faculty that forbids the act, not the permission itself.

Answer: D

The pair is heel / heal.

The first blank needs a part of the body that can be injured: the heel is the back of the foot. The second blank follows 'take longer to', so it needs a verb meaning to recover or mend: heal.

'heel / heel' and 'heal / heal' each use one spelling for both senses, and 'heal / heel' swaps them, putting the verb where the noun belongs. The two words are homophones, which is the whole trap.

Answer: D

The blanks take two / too.

The first blank counts the hours, so it needs the number two: 'After playing two hours of tennis'. The second blank comes before 'tired to walk back', the pattern too + adjective + to-infinitive, meaning more than enough to prevent something: 'I am feeling too tired to walk back.'

'Too hours' is meaningless, so the options beginning with 'too' fail at once. 'Two tired' puts a number where an adverb of degree is needed, so 'two / two' fails at the second blank.