Homophones {a primer}

These are all words that sound identical but are spelt differently, and have different meanings. For example, hair and hare sound the same but their meanings are totally different. After all, you wouldn’t want to have hares growing out of your head, now would you?

Spelling is one of the biggest causes for confusion in the written language, whatever the language. So, just to bore you silly and as I have absolutely nothing better to write about today, here are just some of the most common homophones. 

accessary / accessory

add / ad

air / heir

aisle / isle

all / awl

aloud / allowed

ascent / assent

beach / beech

board / bored

canon / cannon

cereal / serial

chord / cord

coarse / course

draft / draught

flew / flu

flow / floe

gage / gauge

gilt / guilt

great / grate

hair / hare

hall / haul

hoard / horde

hole / whole

its / it’s

leak / leek

lessen / lesson

maize / maze

mews / muse

moor / more

night / knight

pail / pale

pair / pare

pause / paws

peer / pier

plain / plane

practice / practise

principal / principle

rain / reign / rein

raise / raze / rays

right / rite / write

role / roll

sail / sale

sauce / source

sea / see

sight / site

son / sun

stair / stare

stake / steak

stationary / stationery

swat / swot

tail / tale

their / there

to / too/ two

tor / tore

vain / vane / vein

waist / waste

waive / wave

weather / whether

wean / ween

wholly / holy

who’s / whose

wood / would

yoke / yolk

yaw / your / you’re / yore

This is by no means a complete list, but it’s all I can remember off the top of my head. And no, before you ask, I do not wear a dictionary for a toupee!