A paronym or paronyme is a word that is related to another word and derives from the same root; a cognate word. The term paronym can also apply to words which are almost homonyms, but have slight differences in spelling and have different meanings. They often lead to confusion.

Examples

• collision and collusion
• conjuncture and conjecture
• dubious and doubtful
• prolepsis and proslepsis

See also

• Cognate