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Q: What are long homophones (words spelled differently but pronounced
alike)?

A:
<pre>
 uncomplementarinesses, uncomplimentarinesses (21)
</pre>

The following homophones have different semantic roots and
cannot be shortened by dropping prefixes or suffixes.  Each
contains the most letters for its number of words.

seven-way:
<pre>
 scissel, scissile, Sicel, sisal, sisel, sissle, syssal (42)
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six-way:
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 cerous, cirrous/cirrhous, cirrus/cirrhus, scirrhus/scirrhous, seeress, serous (41)
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five-way:
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 senate, senet/sennet, senit/senat, sennet/sinnet, sennit/sennet/sinnet (28)
 carol, carrel, Karel, kerril, keryl (27)
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four-way:
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 baetyl, beadle, beetle, betel (23)
 chorea, correa, keriah, Korea (23)
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three-way:
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 cetaceous, psittaceous, setaceous (29) -- CETACEAN, PSITTACINE but no SETACEAN
 lickerish, licorice, liquorish (26)
 marischal, Marshall, martial (24) -- MARSHAL from the same root as MARISCHAL
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two-way:
<pre>
 recognizance, reconnaissance (12/14) -- COGNIZANCE but no CONNAISSANCE
 corespondent, correspondent (12/13) -- CORRESPOND but no CORESPOND
 calumniation, columniation (12) -- CALUMNY but no COLUMNY
 heteronomous, heteronymous (12) -- HETERONOMY but no HETERONYMY
 precedential, presidential (12) -- PRECEDENT and PRESIDENT are not homophones
 compellation, compilation (11/12) -- COMPILE but no (related) COMPELL
 acclamation, acclimation (11) -- ACCLIMATE but no ACCLAMATE
 androgenous, androgynous (11) -- ANDROGYN but no (related) ANDROGEN
 appalachian, appellation (11)
 depravation, deprivation (11) -- DEPRAVE and DEPRIVE are not homophones
 discography, diskography (11) -- DISKOGRAM but no DISCOGRAM
 quintillian, quintillion (11)
 repertorial, reportorial (11) -- REPERTORY versus REPORTER
 allegation, alligation (10) -- ALLEGE but no ALLIGE
 aplanatism, aplanetism (10) -- APLANAT but not APLANET
 asperation, aspiration (10) -- ASPERATE but no ASPIRATE
 caledonian, calydonian (10)
 caliginous, kaligenous (10)
 cariniform, coryneform (10)
 carinthian, corinthian (10)
 intendance, intendence (10)
 pediatrist, podiatrist (10) -- PEDIATRICS versus PODIATRY
 pertinence, purtenance (10)
 polypteris, polypterus (10)
 spencerian, spenserian (10)
 stationary, stationery (10) -- STATIONER but no STATIONAR
 uranometry, urinometry (10) -- URINOUS but no (related) URANOUS
 councillor, counselor (9/10)
 diaeretic, diarrhetic (9/10)
 ephemerous, ephemeris (9/10)
 lightning, lightening (9/10)
 allegator, alligator (9) -- ALLEGE but no ALLIGE
 censorial, sensorial (9)
 champaign, champagne (9)
 cilicious, silicious (9)
 corollate, correlate (9)
 hermetism, hermitism (9)
 millenary, millinary (9)
 manometer, monometer (9)
 precisian, precision (9)
 veracious, voracious (9)
</pre>

phrases:
<pre>
 Grothendieck K-theory, growth-and-decay theory
</pre>

               *
Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International
Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961.
</pre>
