"There," "their," and "they're" and other homophones

Question

A reader recently asked: What do you call two words that sound the same, but are spelled differently?

Answer

Two or more words that sound the same but are spelled differently are called homophones. (Homo- is the Greek root for "same," and phon- is the Greek root for "sound," so homophone means "same sound.") These are words that can be confusing for writers.

Below are some common homophones that are often confused. To find more of these, click on the link for Language Help near the bottom of the homepage for the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary online.

affect           to influence (verb)
effect           result (noun)

its                belonging to it (possessive of it)
it’s               it is, it has

right            correct (adj), privilege (noun)
write            to form words on paper or computer (verb)

stationary    not moving
stationery    paper for letter writing

than            compared to
then            at that time

their           belonging to them (possessive of they)
there          in that place
they’re        they are

to                toward
two              2
too              also, very

we’re          we are
were           past tense of are