Complex sentence: A homothetic function is a monotonic transformation of a function which is homogeneous of degree 1; however, since ordinal utility functions are only defined up to a monotonic transformation, there is little distinction between the two concepts in practice.
Split into simpler sentences: A homothetic function is a monotonic transformation of a function which is homogeneous of degree 1. However, since ordinal utility functions are only defined up to a monotonic transformation, there is little distinction between the two concepts in practice.