Garcia-Celestino v. Ruiz Harvesting, Inc.

ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judge:

The English language contains many examples of homonyms-"words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning ...." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 843 (5th ed. 2011). The words "letter" (a symbol in the alphabet or a note) and "bark" (a dog's cry or the outside covering of a tree trunk), for example, both fit the bill (as does "bill," for that matter).

But the language of the law has its share of homonyms, too, and in this case we confront a couple of subtle ones. Specifically, this case turns on the difference in…