Paronym facts for kids

Paronyms are words that sound or are spelled very much alike but have different meanings. Think of them as word "cousins" that look or sound similar but aren't the same. This is different from homonyms, which are words that are spelled or sound exactly the same but also have different meanings.

Here are some examples of paronyms in English:

• alternately and alternatively
• collision (when things crash) and collusion (secret agreement)
• conjuncture (a specific situation) and conjecture (a guess)
• eclipse (when one celestial body blocks another) and ellipse (an oval shape)
• excise (to cut out) and exercise (physical activity)
• prolepsis and proslepsis
• continuous (never stopping) and contiguous (next to each other)
• affect (to influence) and effect (the result)
• upmost (highest) and utmost (greatest)
• deprecate (to disapprove of) and depreciate (to lose value)

The word paronym can also describe words that come from the same original word or root. These are also known as cognate words. For example, "legal" and "legality" are paronyms because they share the same root word "leg-".

More About Words

Related Word Types

• -onym: This is a suffix used in words like "homonym" and "synonym." It means "name" or "word."
• Heteronym (linguistics): These are words spelled the same but pronounced differently, with different meanings (like "read" past tense vs. "read" present tense).
• Paronymic attraction: This is when people confuse paronyms because they sound or look similar.
• Word ladder: A word puzzle where you change one letter at a time to get from one word to another.

You can learn more about paronyms in Spanish here: Parónimo para niños