Are begging and ball homonyms in spoken mandarin? Are 求 (beg) and 球 (ball) both written in pinyin as Qiú homonyms? I am trying to get the pronunciation for ball right. Are there authoritative homonym lists maintained somewhere?
Yes, they are both written in pinyin as 'Qiú'.
You can check 新華字典 for more details.
It is a trustable dictionary website.