Heteronym
"House" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say HOWSS when it means a building where people live (noun), and HOWZ when it means to provide shelter for (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
noun
HOWSS
a building where people live
“They bought a new house.”
verb
HOWZ
to provide shelter for
“The shelter can house 50 people.”
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 |
|---|---|---|
| HOWSS | noun | a building where people live |
| HOWZ | verb | to provide shelter for |
"House" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say HOWSS when it means a building where people live (noun), and HOWZ when it means to provide shelter for (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
Pronounced HOWSS, "house" is a noun meaning a building where people live. For example: "They bought a new house."
Pronounced HOWZ, "house" is a verb meaning to provide shelter for. For example: "The shelter can house 50 people."
"House" 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 “house”, browse all 76 heteronyms and stress pairs, or learn how English stress works.