hoard, horde, whored

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

The answer is simple: hoard, horde, whored are homophones of the English language.

hoard
  1. :: noun

    A hidden fund or supply stored for future use; a cache.

  2. :: verb-intransitive

    To gather or accumulate a hoard.

  3. :: verb-transitive

    To accumulate a hoard of.

  4. :: verb-transitive

    To keep hidden or private.

horde
  1. :: noun

    A large group or crowd; a swarm: a horde of mosquitoes. See Synonyms at crowd1.

  2. :: noun

    A nomadic Mongol tribe.

  3. :: noun

    A nomadic tribe or group.

whored
  1. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of whore.

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").