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What is the term for A word that sounds the same as a two or three word phrase?

 
 
Reply Thu 1 Jun, 2023 03:05 pm
I believe I understand the difference between Homophones, Homonyms and Homgraphs. But all the google searches I've tried (so far) bring back lists of single words matched to another single word.

What I want to know is what do you call it when a single word (or a phrase) sounds the same as a different phrase with more than one word. For example:
Cantaloupe and Can't Elope or ... Back Hotel and Backhoe tell ... Woodchuck and would chuck. Someone talking about animal skins and says "Yes sir, Furs! But whole pelts" and my brain hears "Yes Surfer's Butthole pelts"

Is there a name for this sort of thing? I hear them all the time, or maybe I should say I "mis-hear" them all the time as my brain almost always connects them incorrectly and wonders about such a strange sentence until it dawns on me that I picked the wrong meaning for the same set of sounds.

Has anyone compiled a list of these types of things? I can only find lists of single word homophones like Role and Roll etc.
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Type: Question • Score: 1 • Views: 427 • Replies: 4

 
cherrie
 
  6  
Reply Thu 1 Jun, 2023 06:08 pm
@AndyPanda,
The word you need is ORONYM.

Google it and you'll find plenty of examples such as -
"grape ants" (grey pants)
"cleaning's tough" (cleaning stuff)
"the sky" (this guy)
"some mothers" (some others)
"I scream" (ice cream)

Mis-heard song lyrics are called Mondegreens.
roger
 
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Reply Thu 1 Jun, 2023 11:53 pm
@cherrie,
Good grief! I was so sure such a word did not exist.
cherrie
 
  1  
Reply Fri 2 Jun, 2023 06:40 pm
@roger,
I'd never heard of it before either but it's amazing what you can find when you start googling.
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izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Sat 3 Jun, 2023 04:33 am
Can I jump in here and talk about eggcorns?

These are misheard words phrases that have entered the lexicon, examples are escape goat, tenderhooks and eggcorn itself.
0 Replies
 
 

 
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