fazes, phases

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

The answer is simple: fazes, phases are homophones of the English language.

fazes
  1. :: verb

    Third-person singular simple present indicative form of faze.

phases
  1. :: noun

    Plural form of phase.

  2. :: noun

    Plural form of phasis.

Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 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").