Homograph means “written the same,” and homographs are words with the same spelling, but either a different meaning or a different pronunciation, or both. Bear the noun referring to an animal and bear meaning “to carry” are examples of a set of homographs that have the same spelling but a different meaning. Read, which serves as both the present tense of a verb when it is pronounced /REED/ and the past tense form when it is pronounced /RED/, is an example of a homograph with a different meaning and a different pronunciation in each instance.