Heteronym
"Tear" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say TEER when it means a drop of water from the eye (noun), and TAIR when it means to rip (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
noun
TEER
a drop of water from the eye
“A tear rolled down her cheek.”
verb
TAIR
to rip
“Don't tear the paper.”
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 |
|---|---|---|
| TEER | noun | a drop of water from the eye |
| TAIR | verb | to rip |
"Tear" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say TEER when it means a drop of water from the eye (noun), and TAIR when it means to rip (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
Pronounced TEER, "tear" is a noun meaning a drop of water from the eye. For example: "A tear rolled down her cheek."
Pronounced TAIR, "tear" is a verb meaning to rip. For example: "Don't tear the paper."
"Tear" 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 “tear”, browse all 76 heteronyms and stress pairs, or learn how English stress works.