faker, fakir

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

The answer is simple: faker, fakir are homophones of the English language.

faker
  1. :: noun

    one who fakes something

  2. :: noun

    an impostor or impersonator

fakir
  1. :: noun

    A Muslim religious mendicant.

  2. :: noun

    A Hindu ascetic or religious mendicant, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance.

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

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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").