List of common homophones. Definition and examples

The meaning of HOMOPHONE is one of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or derivation or spelling (such as the words to, too, and two).

Definition-

The following list of 70 homophone pairs includes only the most common homophones, which are words that are relatively well-known. These are just buzzwords. There are no inflections (such as third person singular "s" or noun plurals). More homophones can be found in the graded homophones lists below.

Examples-
  • air       heir
  • aisle       isle
  • ante-       anti-
  • eye         I
  • bare 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
  • shore sure
  • sole         soul
  • some sum
  • son         sun
  • stair         stare
  • stationary stationery
  • steal steel
  • suite sweet
  • tail         tale
  • their         there
  • to         too
  • toe         tow
  • waist       waste
  • wait         weight
  • way         weigh
  • weak week
  • wear where

SpeakoClub Tip-

Although a third homophone is possible in a few cases, it has been omitted for simplicity. Some of these pronunciations may differ depending on the variety and accent of English used. The following homophones are based on Standard British English.

Conclusion-

Standard British English is used to create this alphabetical list of homophones. Some words are not homophones in all dialects and dialects of English.