homonymous: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 6 is:

homonymous \hoe-MAH-nuh-mus\ adjective
1 : ambiguous
*2 : having the same designation
3 : of, relating to, or being homonyms

Example sentence:
How many states, besides New York, have a homonymous city or town?

Did you know?
The "ambiguous" sense of "homonymous" refers mainly to words that have two or more meanings. In the 1600s, logicians and scientists who wanted to refer to (or complain about!) such equivocal words chose a name for them based on Latin and Greek, from Greek "hom-" ("same") and "onyma" ("name"). In time, English speakers came up with another sense of "homonymous," referring to two things having the same name (Hawaii, the state, and Hawaii, the island, for example). Next came the use of "homonymous" to refer to homonyms, such as "see" and "sea." There's also a zoological sense. Sheep and goats whose right horn spirals to the right and left horn spirals to the left are said to be "homonymous."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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