What is "homophone"

Homophone \Hom"o*phone\, n. [Cf. F. homophone. See Homophonous.]

1. A letter or character which expresses a like sound with another.
   --Gliddon.

2. A word having the same sound as another, but differing from it in meaning and usually in spelling; as, all and awl; bare and bear; rite, write, right, and wright.

"a word pronounced the same as another (whether spelled the same or not) but different in meaning," 1843, from the adjective homophone (1620s), from Greek homos "same" (see homo- (1)) + phone "sound" (see fame (n.)). Related: Homophonic.

n. 1 A word which is pronounced the same as another word but differs in spelling ''or'' meaning ''or'' origin, for example: carat, caret, carrot, and karat.http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homophonehttp://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/homophone?view=uk 2 A letter or group of letters which are pronounced the same as another letter or group of letters.

n. two words are homophones if they are pronounced the same way but differ in meaning or spelling or both (e.g. bare and bear)

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning, and may differ in spelling. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose (flower) and rose (past tense of "rise"), or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms. Homophones that are spelled differently are also called heterographs. The term "homophone" may also apply to units longer or shorter than words, such as phrases, letters or groups of letters that are pronounced the same as another phrase, letter or group of letters.

A word or unit with this property is said to be "homophonous". "Homophone" derives from the Greek homo- (ὁμο‑), "same", and phōnḗ (φωνή), "voice, utterance".