four
4
fore
for
Is “four” the word that has the same meaning with the most different spellings?
Or is there another one I missed?
Thank you.
Okay, my mistake.
I Meant the same SOUND with different spellings, NOT the same meaning.
I’m not sure how you mean “same meaning,” but I don’t think you’ll find many who think that “four,” “fore,” and “for” mean the same thing.
Ah, that makes all the difference.
In that case, I’d have to say no. There’s one that ties, at least:
2, two, to, and too
I can think of right, rite, wright and write, but I think it depends to some extent on pronunciation. For example, “ant” and “aunt” would be pronounced the same by some people but not by others.
Air, heir, ere, e’er, and err are pretty close, though to my ear the vowel sound in “err” is a bit more clipped. I suppose you could add Eyre, if names count.
I think I’m in love!
Woo hoo! Another proponent of one of my ‘jungle rules’ for word games: if you can say it, and I know what you mean, it’s a word. That’s the definition of ‘word.’ None of this “oh, you can’t use filk, that’s not a real word.” Yeah? Then how come everybody at the table knows what I mean when I say it?
I would pronounce “err” to rhyme with “fur”. Is it normally pronounced to rhyme with “air” in the US?
Which reminds me, if you were a Liverpudlian you could have fair, fare, fayre, fur and fir.
Everybody at this filkin’ table knows what you mean.
I’d say it’s sort of a half-gradation between “air” and “ur,” not quite as u-ish as “fur,” if that makes any sense at all. (Help me out, linguistics geeks.)
Regarding “jungle rules for word games” – behold my greatest ever Scrabble score:
W
E
I
N
ERDOG
The definition for this, of course, is “a dachsund going around a corner.”
Oh dear, make that “wienerdog” and “dachshund.”
Quoth Fretful Porpentine:
[quote]
Air, heir, ere, e’er, and err
[quote]
You forgot “aire”, meaning song, as in “Londonderry Aire” (Danny Boy)
Personally, by the way, I pronounce “e’er” as a clipped two syllables… Sort of like “Ay-er”
Another quadruple is U, Ewe, You, and Yew, by the way.
Make that a quint:
Add “yoo,” which is an ingredient in chocolate-flavored soft drinks.
Do plurals and possessives count as separate spellings? How about seas, sea’s, sees, See’s (the candy company), Cs, and seize?
And I know a Mr. Ciszek who goes by Cisz, but that’s probably too obscure even for Ethilrist’s rules.
Also the name “Hugh” which is pronounced “you” in some places – or so I was lead to understand by this amazing clue in a crossword puzzle of homonyms:
“O’Brien’s sheep decorate for Christmas”
The answer was “Hugh’s ewes use yews.”
(Excuse me for actually replying to the OP.)
A trivia book I read back in the 80’s (one of the Book of Lists?) gives “rose” as the English word with the most homonyms.
rose, roes, rhos, rows, etc. I can’t remember them all or their number, something ~9.
An online search surprisingly only turned up just the ones I can remember (and awards the “air” group top honors).
FtG aka GLP