Question

What are these words called? ‘principal-principle, access-excess’
a. Synonyms
b. Antonyms
c. Homonyms
d. None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: The given words have the same sound, but have different spellings and meanings.

Complete answer:
The first pair has the words ‘principal’ and ‘principle’. These two words are pronounced exactly the same. They are spelled differently. The word ‘principal’ refers to ‘main’ and the word ‘principle’ refers to ‘morals’. They have different meanings.
The second pair has the words ‘access’ and ‘excess’. These two words are also pronounced the same. They are spelled differently. The word ‘access’ refers to ‘ and the word ‘excess’ refers to ‘more than the required amount’. They have different meanings.
Now, we have analysed our options. Let’s look at our options:

a). synonyms - A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in the same language. The given words do not fit this description at all. They are not synonyms, as they have different meanings. So, this is an incorrect option.

b). antonyms - An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. The given words do not fit these descriptions. They have different meanings, but not opposite meanings. So, this is an incorrect option.

c). homonyms - A homonym is each of two or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins. The given words have the same pronunciation and different meanings. They fit the description perfectly. So, this is the correct answer.

d). None of the above - This is an incorrect answer as we have already found a valid answer from the above options.

Hence option (c) is correct. 

Note: Try to find the similarities and differences between the two words in each pair. Note those down, and appropriately choose the required option.