Homophone

A homophone is a word that sounds exactly like another. 'Meat', referring to animal food, sounds exactly like 'meet', meaning 'come together'.

When homophones have the same spelling, they are also homonyms: the modal verb 'will' sounds and also looks exactly like 'will' as in 'last will and testament', and there is a third 'will', as in 'having a strong will'. (Words with the same spelling are called homographs, but they are not all homophones: some have different pronunciations, as with the verb 'to tear', meaning 'to rip', and 'tear', as in 'tearful'.)