Saturday, 13 June 2026

Hominid/Homonym - A Weekend Quiz

This is Ook,the Orang Utan librarian who keeps watch over Bob's library of Terry Pratchett books. He is a hominid. 
The word watch can be a verb [to look upon] πŸ‘€or a noun [a timepiece] ⌚. Such a word is a homonym. A word with one spelling and two meanings.


I came across a short list of homonyms recently which fascinated me - each had two syllables. But the stress was on different syllables, and that made all the difference. For instance
subject - what you learn at school
subject  to force someone to do something
"I should do a blog post on that" I thought. And then I completely forgot about it. Till Thursday, when we happened to be in Waitrose. Bob had suggested we drop in for some Thai Red Curry Paste** and a yellow-sticker hunt. At the back of the store I saw this display

Their new range of summer crockery is called "Curate" -which is a homonym. The dictionary says 

  1. curate -  to select the best and moat appropriate for presentation
  2. curate - a member of the Anglican clergy.

So is this new range designed for Vicarage Tea Parties, do you think?

Here's a weekend quiz for you. A list of paired definitions. Between them, in brackets, the number of letters and the initial of the word in question. Remember, same word, but two pronunciations and two meanings. I will give the answers on Monday. The first one is obviously curate. The last two are a bit more challenging!

Member of clergy

[6,C]

Select best for show

A trade agreement

[8,C]

Get smaller

A gift

[7,P]

Show, or bestow

Way in

[8,E]

Charm

Disabled

[7,I]

Incorrect/without effect

Tiny

[6,M]

60 seconds

Stick out

[7,P]

Plan or design

Rubbish

[6,R]

Turn down

Gather together

[7,C]

A short prayer

Create something

[7,P]

Fruit and Vegetables

Ignore

[8,D]

Reduce in price

Fault

[6,D]

Go to the other side

Mouth wide open

[5,A]

God's love [Greek]

Was miserable

[5,M]

A small scooter

**to make some fish curry for the freezer. Thank you Sue for that idea! 


14 comments:

  1. Got them! Also, walk in line/how to make something (P 7)

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  2. Think I've got them all. That got my brain working. Regards Sue H

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  3. I've got all but 3 of them but will think about those. Fun!

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    Replies
    1. I'm sure you will get there in the end

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  4. Brain seized up over a few of those but hope your Fish Curry turns out well - mine is yummy!

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  5. I struggled with 5 and 11. Thanks for the entertaining quiz.

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  6. Good fun. I’m still working on some but wonder if the second clue for number 3 should be “show” to achieve the different pronunciation? Nicky K

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    Replies
    1. I think you are right. Thank you. I have modified that one.

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  7. Just saw this! I got a couple of them right away, but, need to ponder the rest!

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