Meaning Shifts

Some English words change more than pronunciation when the stressed syllable moves. In this small set of edge cases, the word can shift part of speech, meaning, or both.

Many examples are noun-to-verb pairs such as a noun stressed on the first syllable and a verb stressed on the second. Others change meaning more sharply, including noun-to-adjective and noun-to-verb contrasts.

This page lists the curated entries currently stored in the database.

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