paronym

{{Short description|Similar-sounding word with different meaning}}

{{Distinguish|Patronym}}

{{Redirect|Paronymous|the butterfly genus|Paronymus}}

{{Wiktionary|paronym}}

{{More citations needed|date=June 2017}}

Paronyms are near-homophones ("soundalike"), near-homographs ("lookalike") and/or near-cognates ("meanalike") — words that are similar but not identical in pronunciation, spelling, and/or lexical meaning — which may cause confusion in their understanding (reception) and usage (production).{{Citation |title=Dictionary of Lexicography |author1=R.R.K.Hartmann |author2=Gregory James |year=2002 |page=106 |publisher=Routledge}} Paronymy is the relationship between a pair of words or phrases which are similar or partially identical in spelling, pronunciation and/or meaning.

In the discussion of semantic analysis, the term paronym can also be used in a narrower sense to refer to words that are derived from the same root, i.e. cognate words.{{Cite OED|paronym}}{{Citation |title=A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics |author=David Crystal |page=351 |year=2008 |edition=6th |publisher=Blackwell publishers}}