What are homophones?
Homophones are words pronounced alike but different in spelling and meaning. In other words homophones sound alike but mean different things and have different spelling.
Homophones constitute frequent errors among the English second language learners and sometimes they even pose difficulties to native speakers.
Here's a list of the most common English homophones, in alphabetical order:
Note: those marked with an * are the most frequent ones.
ad, add *
hair, heir
aisle, isle
allowed, aloud
altar, alter
ate, eight
away, aweigh
bait, bate, bathe
band, banned
bare, bear, beard, beer
be, bee
beach, beech, bitch
bean, been *
beat, beet
board, bored
boarder, border
born, borne
brake, break *
bread, bred
but, butt
buy, by, bye *
caster, castor
caught, court
ceiling, sealing
cell, sell
censor, sensor
cent, scent, sent
cereal, serial *
cheap, cheep
sight, site *
coarse, course
council, counsel
creak, creek
currant, current
dam, damn
days, daze
dear, deer
desert, dessert *
dew, due
die, dye *
draft, draught
fair, fare
farther, father
faze, phase
feat, feet
flair, flare
flea, flee
flour, flower *
for, fore, four
foreword, forward
forth, fourth gait, gate
genes, jeans
gorilla, guerilla
grate, great
groan, grown guess, guest
hail, hale
hair, hare
hay, hey
heal, heel,
hear, here
heard, herd
hi, high
higher, hire
his, he's *
holy, wholly
hour, our *
idle, idol
in, inn *
it's, its *
knew, new *
knight, night
know, no, now *
knows, nose
lead, led
leak, leek
lie, lye
made, maid
mail, male
mantel, mantle
mare, mayor
marshal, martial
meat, meet *
missed, mist
morning, mourning
one, won
pair, pear *
peace, piece, pace *
peak, peek
peal, peel
pitch, peach
plain, plane *
principal, principle *
rain, reign, rein
read, red *
right, write *
road, rode
sale, sail
scene, seen
sea, see
sic, sick
side, sighed
sign, sine
sink, synch
slay, sleigh
sloe, slow
sole, soul
son, sun
stake, steak
steal, steel *
tale, tail
there, their, they're *
threw, through *
tire, tired *
to, too, two *
tough, tuff
troop, troupe
vain, vane, vein
vale, veil
waist, waste
wait, weight
war, wore
wear, where
we, wee
weak, week *
weather, whether *
which, witch *
whine, wine
whit, with, white *
who's, whose
wood, would
your, you're, yours *