HOMO SAPIENS
Credit: GAMES Magazine
November, 2001

Mildred Henderson

Can you fill in the blanks below with three pairs of words that have the same highly unusual but indirect relationship to one another? Definitions of each word appear in parentheses.

_______(boyfriend) is to _______(limb)
as
_______(layer) is to _______(weight allowance)

as

_______(marsh plant) is to ________(crimson)

Answer:

beau is to bough
as
tier is to tare

as

reed is to red

In each pair, the second word is a homophone of a heteronym of a homophone of the first word.

BEAU is a homophone of BOW (as in bow and arrow). BOW (as in bow and arrow) can also be pronounced BOW (as in take a bow). Words like these are called heteronyms. BOUGH (a tree limb) is homophone of BOW (as in take a bow).

TIER (a level or layer) is a homophone of TEAR (a drop from your eye). TEAR (a drop from your eye) can also be pronounced TEAR (as in tear up a piece of paper). TARE (a weed or net weight) is a homophone of TEAR (as in tear up a piece of paper).

The word READ is very unusual in that it is a heteronym of its own present and past tenses. (I READ the newspaper every day. / I READ that story yesterday.)

REED is a homophone for READ (present tense). READ (past tense) is a heteronym for READ (present tense). RED is a homophone of READ (past tense).