Is there a term for the phenomenon where the same word forms more than one part of speech?


Is there a term for e.g. the lexical symbol "duck"? It is both a verb and a noun, in contemporary use having no apparent connection, and so would appear to be represent two words.


Then, is the a better term than 'lexical symbol' to describe any grouping of letters having some meaning? I just made up lexical symbol because it seemed convenient.



Answer



In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings


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