What are "identical words" as distinct from homonyms?


The wikipedia entry on homonyms contains the following diagram:


enter image description here


In the very center of that image is a category labeled "identical words" which is separate from the rest but is at the intersection of "Same spelling" and "Same meaning". So, apparently there are words that are spelled identically and have the same meaning but are considered separate words.


Am I reading the diagram wrong? If not, can someone explain what these words are and offer an example?



Answer




"I believe it's intended to be the triple intersection of same meaning, same spelling, and same pronunciation. That's all there is. In other words, any word at all (say, uncle) is identical with itself. So the contents of that intersection is any pair of words that mean the same, sound the same, and are spelled the same; e.g, (uncle, uncle). They could have given an example, I spose. But Venn diagrams are only useful for certain lexical relations." – John Lawler



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