Comments on: FV. Singmastery! http://mathfactor.uark.edu/2009/06/fv-singmastery/ The Math Factor Podcast Site Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:52:06 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.25 By: Mike Jarvis http://mathfactor.uark.edu/2009/06/fv-singmastery/comment-page-1/#comment-549 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:36:13 +0000 http://mathfactor.uark.edu/?p=689#comment-549 More quad-homophones (or is it tetra-homophone, since homophone has Greek etymology?) arranged roughly in order of quality, although I think they are all more legit than agreeee or bullllama.
 
My best ones:
lays, laze, leis, lase
air, heir, ere, err
medal, meddle, metal, mettle (depending on your pronunciation)
 
Using Greek letters as words:
rose, rhos, rows, roes (roe deer, that is, not the eggs which is already plural)
new, knew, gnu, nu
 
Using English letters as words:
sees, seas, seize, C’s
peas, pease, pees, P’s
tea, tee, ti (the musical note), T
teas, tease, tees, T’s
you, ewe, yew, U
use, ewes, yews, U’s
 
Using Scottish:
nay, neigh, nee, nae
brays, braise, braze, braes
 
Using rare words:
way, weigh, whey (assuming you don’t aspirate wh), wey (=224 lbs)
seer, sear, sere, cere (=part of a parrot’s beak)
maze, maize, mays, mase (=like lase, but for microwaves)
wheel, we’ll, weal (=general welfare), wheal (=welt) (again assuming wh=w)
 
Questionable:
oar, or, ore, o’er (poetic, but not a standard contraction)
rays, raise, raze, res (as in: There are 7 res on a piano for the key of C.)(*)
 
And depending on what you are willing to accept, four of these can bump up to pent-homophones:
lays, laze, leis, lase, leas (the “lay” pronunciation is second listing for lea in Webster, but still acceptable)
air, heir, ere, err, e’er
teas, tease, tees, T’s, tis (*)
use, ewes, yews, U’s, youse (NY/Philly slang)

 
There are even more if you start allowing proper nouns (e.g. peek, peak, pique, Peke), or two word phrases (e.g. assent, ascent, a cent, a scent), but that seemed to be stretching too far.
 

(*)Wiktionary declares re and ti to be “uncountable” — and hence no plural — but what do they know?

]]> By: jyoak http://mathfactor.uark.edu/2009/06/fv-singmastery/comment-page-1/#comment-547 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:19:50 +0000 http://mathfactor.uark.edu/?p=689#comment-547 Wow!  I had come today to post exactly the same item.  :-)

]]> By: Brian Tristam Williams http://mathfactor.uark.edu/2009/06/fv-singmastery/comment-page-1/#comment-545 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:17:18 +0000 http://mathfactor.uark.edu/?p=689#comment-545 A high-school favourite of mine:

Punctuate the following so that it makes sense:

alice while matthew had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

Ready for it… ?

Alice, while Matthew had had “had,” had had “had had.” “Had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.

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