The following sets of words all have the same (or nearly the same) pronunciation but differing spelling and meaning. There are several examples of the last spelling rule I listed in my last post.
- aether (air) / ether (chemical)
- better (more good) / bettor (one who bets)
- bogy (monster) / bogie (truck) / bogey (golf score)
- bologna (meat) / baloney (nonsense)
- caddie (carrier) / caddy (container)
- carat (jewel weight) / karat (gold purity)
- chimera (composite creature) / chimaera (fish)
- curb (control) / kerb (street edge)
- daemon (spirit) / demon (evil creature)
- dialogue (conversation) / dialog (computer message)
- disc (round, flat object) / disk (magnetic storage)
- dough (food element) / doe (deer) / d'oh (exclamation)
- draught (pulling) / draft (plan)
- high (elevated) / hi (greeting)
- low (not elevated) / lo (exclamation)
- metre (unit) / meter (machine)
- might (power) / mite (bug)
- mould (shape) / mold (plant life)
- mucus (noun) / mucous (adjective)
- plain (regular, flat land) / plane (airplane, 2D region)
- programme (planned sequence) / program (computer routine)
- rhyme (speech sound) / rime (frost)
- right (entitlement, correct) / rite (tradition)
- sack (bag) / sac (membrane)
- story (narrative) / storey (level)
- theatre (system) / theater (building)
- tire (grow weary) / tyre (rubber wheel)
- tonne (metric) / ton (US standard)
- vice (sin) / vise (tool)
- yuck (disgust) / yuk (laughter)
English has many, many more homophones that I won't get into here. I've limited myself to just the homophones that are easily (and often) mixed up. For a more complete list, check out Wikipedia's articles here and here or this book.