What are words pronounced or written in a similar way but have different meanings called?
Paronyms are words that are pronounced or written in a similar way but which have different lexical meanings. Paronyms contrast with homonyms, which are words with different meaning having the same pronunciation or spelling. Examples of paronyms include:
alternately and alternatively
collision and collusion
conjuncture and conjecture
excise and exercise
prolepsis and proslepsis
continuous and contiguous
affect and effect
upmost and utmost
deprecate and defecate
paronym and paronorm
Some paronyms are truly synonymous, but only under the rarest of conditions. They often lead to confusion.
The term paronym can also refer to words that are derived from the same root, i.e. cognate words.
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