Select the sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word: The monk documented the breviarium with precise annotations.

Correct — C. A homonym is the same word carrying a different meaning.

In the stem the monk annotates a breviarium, the Latin word behind breviary: a book of prayers, psalms and readings. Options (a), (b) and (d) keep that sense: psalms, a Gothic copy from Prague, a liturgist chanting from it.

In (c) a technician calibrates it using voltmeters, so it is a device, not a book. Same spelling, new meaning: option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  The breviarium contained psalms for daily recitation. — Psalms for daily recitation are what a breviary holds. The word keeps the stem's meaning, the prayer book, so this is the same word, not a homonym.
• (b)
  The scholar studied a Gothic breviarium from Prague. — Gothic gives the book's style and Prague its origin. It is still the prayer book the monk annotates, so the meaning has not changed.
• (d)
  The liturgist chanted directly from the breviarium. — Chanting directly from it makes it a service book in a liturgist's hands, the stem's own sense. The meaning does not change, so there is no homonym here.

The item prints a rare word in a stem sentence, then four sentences that use it. Find the one where the meaning changes. The clue is the company the word keeps.

Breviarium is the Latin source of breviary, a book of the prayers, hymns, psalms and readings for the canonical hours of daily prayer. A monk, psalms and a liturgist all belong with that book.

Technician, calibrated and voltmeters belong to electrical measurement, so in (c) the word has to name something else.

Key facts

• A homonym is a word with the same spelling or sound as another but a different meaning: the stern of a ship, a stern warning.
• Breviary comes from Latin breviarium, 'summary, abridgment', from brevis, 'short'.
• A breviary is a book of the prayers, hymns, psalms and readings for the canonical hours.
• Homophones share a sound but not a spelling: right and write.

Common traps

• Picking the most scholarly-sounding sentence, such as the Gothic breviarium from Prague, instead of the one where the meaning changes.
• Looking for a sentence where the word is spelt differently, when all four spell it the same and only the meaning moves.

No directly related past PYQ was found.