Homonym vs. Homophone

In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. This usually happens as a result of the two words having different origins. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy.

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. 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.

All homonyms are homophones because they sound the same. However, not all homophones are homonyms. Homophones with different spellings are not homonyms.

Comparison chart

 

	Homonym	Homophone
Examples	Can as in "Can I help you?" and can as in "Here's a can of beans."	Fourth and forth
Introduction (from Wikipedia)	In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings, usually as a result of the two words having different origins.	A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. 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.
Spelling	Homonyms have the same spelling.	Homophones may have the same or different spelling.
Meaning	Different	Different
Pronunciation	Same	Same