eruptive, irruptive

The words eruptive, irruptive sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do eruptive, irruptive sound the same even though they are completely different words?

The answer is simple: eruptive, irruptive are homophones of the English language.

eruptive
  1. :: adjective

    That erupts

  2. :: adjective

    That is accompanied by eruptions

  3. :: adjective

    Produced by eruption

  4. :: noun

    An eruptive rock

irruptive
  1. :: adjective

    Irrupting or tending to irrupt.

  2. :: adjective

    Geology Intrusive.

Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License, from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition and Wordnik.

Share eruptive, irruptive

About Homophones

Homophones (literally "same sound") are usually defined as words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of how they are spelled.

If they are spelled the same then they are also homographs (and homonyms); if they are spelled differently then they are also heterographs (literally "different writing").