glairy, glary

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

The answer is simple: glairy, glary are homophones of the English language.

glairy
  1. :: adjective

    Slimy. Like glair, or partaking of its qualities; covered with glair; viscous and transparent.

glary
  1. :: adjective

    Dazzlingly bright; glaring.

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").