kneaded, needed

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

The answer is simple: kneaded, needed are homophones of the English language.

kneaded
  1. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of knead.

needed
  1. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of need.

  2. :: adjective

    Necessary; being needed.

Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License and Wordnik.

Share kneaded, needed

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").