homophones

Homophones are words that sound the same but mean different things, or are spelled differently, like “bare” and “bear“. More commonly confused examples are pairs like effect and affect; weather and whether, or they’re, their and there. Homophones are kinds of homonyms, which are words that can be spelled the same or differently, and sound the same or differently, but have different meanings.

Homonyms consist of homophones (words that sound the same and have different meanings, but may or may not be spelled the same), and homographs (words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and may not sound the same). An example would be “spelt” the past tense or participle of the verb spell, and “spelt” as a noun, which is a hulled and ancient grain.