Oronym Words in English: Vocabulary Building

Book excerpt: What are “Oronym Words”? ORONYMS ---- [Oro- Whole; Nym: Name] An oronym is a word or phrase that sounds very much the same as another word or phrase, often as a result of sounds running together. Oronyms are spelled differently and they have different meanings. Oronym [singular] | Oronyms [plural] Example: A name ---- an aim Some Important Points: 1. An oronym is also called a continunym or a sliceonym. 2. An oronym generally originates when it is difficult to tell where one word ends and the next begins (e.g. a name -- an aim). An oronym also originates when a particular word may be divided into two or more meaningful words (e.g. affection -- a faction). 3. Effectiveness of oronyms may depend on what somebody is saying in context with the rest of the conversation. 3(A). Oronyms may completely alter the meaning of what somebody is saying. Example: They wanted the allocation of the house. They wanted the location of the house. 3(B). Oronyms may also make conversation very funny. Example: The teacher asked the student to give an example. The teacher asked the student to give an egg sample. 3(C). Oronyms may also make conversation completely senseless. Example: They will appoint a new manager at the earliest. They will a point a new manager at the earliest. 4. Ornonyms may also include abbreviations (shortened form of a word or group of words) Examples: ICT -- I see tea VC -- we see Derived Terms Related To ‘Oronyms’: Oronymous Words or phrases that are Oronyms are said to be Oronymous. Oronymy The state of being an Oronym is called Oronymy. Following is the detailed list of Oronyms: Oronym Words -- A Oronym Pair -- A1 air-to-air ---- year-to-year Example: The jets had air-to-air weapons. The jets had year-to-year weapons. Oronym Pair -- A2 aggregate ---- a green gate [aggregate -- total] Oronym Pair -- A3 aggregator ---- a grass eater [aggregator -- a kind of Internet company] Oronym Pair -- A4 agree to differ ---- a great offer [agree to differ -- (of two people) to not discuss their different views about something | offer -- proposal] Oronym Pair -- A5 angry response ---- a grey sponge Oronym Pair -- A6 accede ---- a seat [accede -- to agree] Oronym Pair -- A7 accent ---- a cent [accent -- pronunciation | cent -- a coin] Oronym Pair -- A8 accord ---- a cord [accord -- agreement | cord -- string or rope] Oronym Pair -- A9 accounting ---- a counting [accounting -- bookkeeping] Oronym Pair -- A10 accrue ---- a crew [accrue -- amass | crew -- team]