Homophones

 

Homophones are words that have exactly the same sound (pronunciation)

but different meanings and (usually) spelling.

 

For example, the following two words have the same sound, but

different meanings and spelling:

 

hour

our

 

In the next example, the two words have the same sound and spelling,

but different meanings:

 

 bear (the animal)

 bear (to carry)

 

Usually homophones are in groups of two (our, hour), but very

occasionally they can be in groups of three (to, too, two) or even

four. If we take our "bear" example, we can add another word to the

group"

 

bare (naked)

bear (the animal)

bear (to tolerate)

 

"Our bear cannot bear to be bare at any hour."

 

 

The word homophone is made from two combining forms:

homo- (from the Greek word "homos", meaning "same"

-phone (from the Greek word "phone", meaning "voice" or "sound"

You will see many other English words using one or other of these

combining forms.

 

 

The following list of 70 groups of homophones contains only the most

common homophones, using relatively well-known words. These are

headwords only. No inflections (such as third person singular "s" or

noun plurals) are included.

 

air heir

aisle isle

ante- anti-

eye I

bare bear bear

be bee

brake break

buy by

cell sell

cent scent

cereal serial

coarse course

complement compliment

dam damn

dear deer

die dye

fair fare

fir fur

flour flower

for four

hair hare

heal heel

hear here

him hymn

hole whole

hour our

idle idol

in inn

knight night

knot not

know no

made maid

mail male

meat meet

morning mourning

none nun

oar or

one won

pair pear

peace piece

plain plane

poor pour

pray prey

principal principle

profit prophet

real reel

right write

root route

sail sale

sea see

seam seem

sight site

sew so sow

shore sure

sole soul

some sum

son sun

stair stare

stationary stationery

steal steel

suite sweet

tail tale

their there

to too two

toe tow

waist waste

wait weight

way weigh

weak week

wear where

 

NB: In a few cases, a third homophone, although possible, has not been

included for simplicity. Different varieties and accents of English

may produce variations in some of these pronunciations. The homophones

listed here are based on British English

 

Source:Alborz English Association