Capitonym
![Capitonym illustration: a large turkey and a map of the country Turkey shows how adding a capital changes the meaning](https://images.prismic.io/sketchplanations/6776673d-c527-4704-b4ca-98a7baa1b2a9_187405420621.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&w=3840&q=50)
A capitonym is a word that changes meaning and sometimes pronunciation when capitalised.
You'll be familiar with many examples:
- turkey/Turkey
- may/May
- march/March
- august/August
- lent/Lent
- reading/Reading
- mobile/Mobile
- polish/Polish
- alpine/Alpine
- china/China
For years as a kid, no joke, I couldn’t understand why there was a polish club at the bottom of our road. Yes, it was a Polish club.
Capitonyms are also heteronyms when they change pronunciation as for polish and Polish.
Also see acronym or initialism
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