grocer, grosser

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

The answer is simple: grocer, grosser are homophones of the English language.

grocer
  1. :: noun

    One that sells foodstuffs and various household supplies.

grosser
  1. :: adjective

    comparative form of gross: more gross

Definitions from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition, 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").