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What do these three words have in common polish, job, herb?

Question #101701. Asked by shalomnow.

queproblema
Answer has 12 votes
queproblema
19 year member
2119 replies

Answer has 12 votes.
They are all heterophones.

"In linguistics, heterophones are words that are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and meanings, such as desert (abandon) and desert (arid region). Heterophones are a type of homonym, and are also called heteronyms."
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterophone

So, the Polish noblewoman orderd the maid to polish the silver.
The long-suffering Job made a great job of bearing his affliction.
Herb tossed a lovely salad of greens and herbs.

Dec 14 2008, 6:38 PM
deaconblues63
Answer has 19 votes
Currently Best Answer
deaconblues63
16 year member
160 replies

Answer has 19 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
They are each pronounced differently if the first letter is capitalized.

Polish/polish
Job/job
Herb/herb

Dec 14 2008, 6:39 PM
avatar
maninmidohio star
Answer has 8 votes
maninmidohio star
17 year member
203 replies avatar

Answer has 8 votes.
They are all capitonyms which are words that change their meanings (and sometimes their pronunciation) when capitalized. Other examples include august china, and catholic.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_case-sensitive_English_words

Dec 14 2008, 6:41 PM
queproblema
Answer has 9 votes
queproblema
19 year member
2119 replies

Answer has 9 votes.
Well, I do believe maninmidohio's got it. We must share these poems from his reference:

Job's Job
In August, an august patriarch
Was reading an ad in Reading, Mass.
Long-suffering Job secured a job
To polish piles of Polish brass.

Herb's Herbs
A herb store owner, name of Herb,
Moved to a rainier Mount Rainier.
It would have been so nice in Nice,
And even tangier in Tangier.

Dec 14 2008, 6:52 PM
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