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Are there any heteronyms in English with different hyphenation patterns for line breaking? That is, is there any sequence of letters which can be interpreted as two different words with different pronunciations such that it would be generally considered appropriate to hyphenate at a particular point for line breaking only if one of the words was meant, not the other?

I’ve scanned through lists of heteronyms, but nothing’s popped out. As far as I know there are no reference works which address this question. The underlying question, I suppose, is whether it’s always possible to hyphenate purely mechanically, with a dictionary of hyphenations and without considering context.

Example from a comment: Suppose there were some word frochouse, which would be pronounced "fro-SHOOS" and could be hyphenated as fro-chouse, and another word frochouse which would be pronounced "FROCK-hows" and could be hyphenated as froc-house. That would be an example, if not for the fact that both are made-up words.

Sneftel
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    The difference between resign and re-sign? – Henry Nov 17 '23 at 10:10
  • I'm not sure I agree with it, but Merriam-Webster says you can hyphenate resign (relegate, give up) after "re". So it wouldn't count? – Stuart F Nov 17 '23 at 10:27
  • @Henry re-sign can be hyphenated in the same way as resign (and vice versa). – Sneftel Nov 17 '23 at 10:33
  • There is a distinction between hyphenation at the end of a line to break words for layout purposes and general hyphenation to indicate meaning and pronunciation. – Henry Nov 17 '23 at 10:39
  • @Henry good point, I’m specifically focusing on hyphenation for line-breaking purposes. – Sneftel Nov 17 '23 at 10:41
  • Periodic (at [fixed] intervals) / periodic (compare perchloric) are probably candidates. But this is of fringe interest. More important is that 'heteronym' is polysemous; 'boot' and 'trunk' are heteronyms, as are 'footpath' and 'sidewalk'. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 17 '23 at 11:19
  • @EdwinAshworth Let me know if you have difficulty figuring out which meaning is intended. – Sneftel Nov 17 '23 at 11:35
  • I'm with @Henry, but for re-creation and recreation. – Yosef Baskin Nov 17 '23 at 14:33
  • @YosefBaskin I think both of those hyphenate as re-cre-a-tion. (Unless you are suggesting that one form must have a hyphen after the first e? Then they wouldn’t be heteronyms.) – Sneftel Nov 17 '23 at 14:35
  • Hyphenation has zero to do with meaning. There is no way to tell - other than context - whether the meaning is re-sign (to sign again) and resign (leave a position). – Lambie Nov 17 '23 at 14:53
  • @Lambie exactly. Which makes it potentially the case that there’s some word, say “frochouse”, which would be pronounced “fro-SHOOS” and could be hyphenated as fro-chouse, and another word “frochouse” which would be pronounced “FROCK-hows” and could be hyphenated as “froc-house”. I’m just not sure whether there’s any instance which is real words rather than made up ones. – Sneftel Nov 17 '23 at 16:24
  • No, no, you don't change hyphenation based on pronunciation as you say in your comment. You are attempting to discount what I said. Homophones are hyphenated the same way. There would be no difference. – Lambie Nov 17 '23 at 16:52
  • Of interest, perhaps: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/458817/hyphenation-end-of-line-division-of-germany-and-some-other-common-words – Tinfoil Hat Nov 17 '23 at 16:53
  • @Lambie I'm not asking about homophones. It sounds like you might be addressing the case of British English, where hyphenation is (usually) based on affixes rather than pronunciation. (I'd be happy for examples from any dialect, of course.) – Sneftel Nov 17 '23 at 17:07
  • Oxford Dictionary: each of two or more words that are spelled identically but have different sounds and meanings, such as tear meaning “rip” and tear meaning “liquid from the eye.”. Those would be hyphenated the same way. Tearing in both cases. Hyphenated the same way. – Lambie Nov 17 '23 at 17:12
  • Right, that is an example of heteronyms, but not of ones that are hyphenated differently. I'm looking for examples (if any) of heteronyms that are hyphenated differently. – Sneftel Nov 17 '23 at 17:16

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refuse the verb breaks as re-fuse.
refuse the noun breaks as ref-use.

attribute the verb breaks as at-trib-​ute.
attribute the noun breaks as at-​tri-bute.

resume the verb breaks as re-sume.
resume the noun breaks as re-su-me.

sake the beverage breaks as sa-ke.
The other sakes can’t break.

Source: Merriam Webster—refuse

Here are a few more:

crooked the adjective breaks as crook-ed.
crooked the verb can’t break.

wicked the adjective breaks as wick-ed.
wicked the verb can’t break.

dogged the adjective breaks as dog-ged.
dogged the verb can’t break.

Source: Oxford English Dictionary (login required)

So, no, without context, you can’t decide where or if to break.

Tinfoil Hat
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    Goodness, I really wasn't expecting there to be so many examples. My powers of brainstorming are clearly not what they once were. ;-) The -ed pattern is interesting, and "refuse" is particularly interesting given the shared etymology and not being a loan-word. – Sneftel Nov 17 '23 at 17:26
  • Just added another; I’m sure there are more! – Tinfoil Hat Nov 17 '23 at 17:32
  • A few more in here: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/04/snappy-endings.html – Tinfoil Hat Nov 17 '23 at 18:18