Learn English – Terminology for pairs of words with the same meaning, similar or same pronunciation but different spelling

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Is there a term describe word pairs like colour/color that have the same meaning, similar or same pronunciation but a different spelling?

The most common examples I can think of are English/American spelling variants, though there are alternative transliterations of foreign words would fit the bill too (e.g., Ziggurat/Ziqqurat).

I was wondering if there is a recognised word for describing these word pairings as we have terminology like "homonym", "heteronym" etc. for words with different meanings.

Best Answer

The word you could be looking for is variant

Definition:

1 obsolete : variable

2 : manifesting variety, deviation, or disagreement

3 : varying usually slightly from the standard form

(examples) variant readings; variant spellings

Also, from google search: enter image description here

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