Select the sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word: The…
2025
Select the sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word:
The prince's gules dominated the family coat of arms.
Answer: B. The chef prepared a sauce of deep gules and cumin. — ConceptA homonym is a word that keeps exactly the same form - the same spelling and the same pronunciation - while carrying a completely unrelated meaning.…
- A.
The tapestry featured gules and argent prominently.
- B.
The chef prepared a sauce of deep gules and cumin.
- C.
The gules border signified martial lineage.
- D.
The herald explained the symbolism of gules to visitors.
Attempted by 10 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept
A homonym is a word that keeps exactly the same form - the same spelling and the same pronunciation - while carrying a completely unrelated meaning. The form therefore settles nothing; only the sense a word bears inside its own sentence does.
So an item of this kind is answered in two moves: first fix the sense of the highlighted word in the sentence you are given, then find the sentence in which that identical form is made to carry some other sense.
Applying it here
In the given sentence the word sits on a family coat of arms. There gules is the heraldic name of the colour red, one of the tinctures used in describing arms, alongside argent for silver and azure for blue. The sense to be matched against is therefore 'the colour red in heraldry'.
Reading each sentence for the sense its context forces on the word gives:
Sentence | Sense the context forces on gules |
|---|---|
The tapestry featured gules and argent prominently. | Paired with argent, the heraldic name for silver: both are tinctures named as part of a design - the heraldic sense. |
The gules border signified martial lineage. | A border on an armorial device, read for what it signifies about lineage - the heraldic sense. |
The herald explained the symbolism of gules to visitors. | Explained by a herald, the officer of arms himself - the heraldic sense. |
The chef prepared a sauce of deep gules and cumin. | Set beside cumin as something stirred into a sauce - an edible substance, with no connection to heraldry. |
Result
Three of the sentences keep the word squarely inside heraldry. Only the sauce sentence steps outside it: there the same form names something that goes into food beside cumin, a meaning wholly unrelated to the red tincture on the prince's coat of arms. 'The chef prepared a sauce of deep gules and cumin' is therefore the sentence that contains the homonym.