In Cold Morning Shadow, Cyleine and Garnette become keepers of words, notably homophones but they made lists of other words with something in common as well.
During the nine months or so I spent writing the novel I made the lists that comprise Chapter 27. I jotted a pair as it came to mind, as I heard a word in conversation, or caught one anywhere else words are encountered. I avoided pulling them from the internet or from books of lists (if there are some; I don’t have any).
It was never my intention to compile a “complete” list of homophones or homographs, heteronyms or heterographs, palindromes or other linguistic phenomena. Be skeptical of anyone purporting to offer a complete list.
Since the book contains only what I was able to think of during that period, no sooner was it published than another pair of homophones would come to mind, or another type of list that I should have included. And another, and another.
Therefore, let this page serve as a place to append such words and auxiliary lists.
In the book, one character includes many approximations to the list of homophones — pairs that almost sound alike or which could be mistaken for one another if someone doesn’t hear a word clearly at first. For example (and these are not in the book):
- concord conquered
- diary diarrhea
- inequity iniquity
- isolating oscillating
- pediatrician speedy attrition
Then of course, more legitimate homophones have come to mind since the book came out:
- readout redoubt
- reek wreak
- tare tear
- tighten titan
And I open this page to readers’ contributions as well. What pairs have you thought of that the books has left out? What other word lists would you suggest?
the novel 