Homophone

Homophones normally come in pairs. A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word, but has a different meaning, and usually a different spelling. (If they sound the same AND look the same, they are homonyms.) 'Bare' and 'bear' are one pair of homophones; 'there', 'they're' and 'their' form a triplet (group of three). Homophones are the basis of puns.

For the opposite phenomenon, words that look alike but sound different, see homographs.

For a list of examples of homophones, see category:homophones.

• The related adjective meaning 'like a homophone', 'sharing the character of a homophone' or 'having the same sound [as another word]' is homophonous.

You may also like to see AWE's article on homonyms - and beware a possible confusion with homophene.