Heteronym
"Bass" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say BASE when it means low musical tone or instrument (noun), and BASS (rhymes with class) when it means a type of fish (noun). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
noun
BASE
low musical tone or instrument
“He plays bass guitar.”
noun
BASS (rhymes with class)
a type of fish
“We caught a bass this morning.”
Each button speaks the respelling, not the spelling — otherwise the speech engine would pick a single default pronunciation for both senses.
| Pronunciation | Part of speech | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| BASE | noun | low musical tone or instrument |
| BASS (rhymes with class) | noun | a type of fish |
"Bass" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say BASE when it means low musical tone or instrument (noun), and BASS (rhymes with class) when it means a type of fish (noun). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
Pronounced BASE, "bass" is a noun meaning low musical tone or instrument. For example: "He plays bass guitar."
Pronounced BASS (rhymes with class), "bass" is a noun meaning a type of fish. For example: "We caught a bass this morning."
"Bass" is a heteronym: two distinct words that happen to be spelled the same way. English spelling did not standardise around pronunciation, so unrelated words sometimes converged on one spelling while keeping separate sounds.
See the full entry for “bass”, browse all 76 heteronyms and stress pairs, or learn how English stress works.