To follow on from the homophones and homographs, in October we’ll look at the most confusing of all: homonyms. These have the same spelling and the same sound, but two or more completely different meanings – what a dreadful language!
duck [dʌk]. This can be a waterbird, where the males are often very colourful (and the females more or less brown), or a verb meaning “to lower the head suddenly to avoid something”. When someone warns “duck!”, the traditional response is “quack!”. Duck is also the colloquial name for an amphibious truck developed by the US army during the Second World War: the correct name, though, is DUKW (D denotes made in 1942, U for utility, K meaning all-wheel drive, and W tandem rear axles). Surviving DUKWs are now used as tourist transport in many cities around the world.
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