Oronym Words in English: Vocabulary Building

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Education & Teaching, Teaching, Language Experience Approach, Study Aids, ESL, Foreign Languages

• Author: Manik Joshi
• ISBN: 9781310020100
• Publisher: Manik Joshi
• Publication: August 10, 2014
• Imprint: Smashwords Edition
• Language: English

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 spelt 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 house.
They wanted the location of house.

3(B). Oronyms may also make conversation very funny.
Example:
Teacher asked the student to give an example.
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. Oronyms 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]