knows, noes, nose

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

The answer is simple: knows, noes, nose are homophones of the English language.

knows
  1. :: verb

    Third-person singular simple present indicative form of know.

  2. :: verb

    All persons, singular and plural, present form of know.

noes
  1. :: noun

    Plural of no1.

nose
  1. :: noun

    The part of the human face or the forward part of the head of other vertebrates that contains the nostrils and organs of smell and forms the beginning of the respiratory tract.

  2. :: noun

    The sense of smell: a dog with a good nose.

  3. :: noun

    The ability to detect, sense, or discover as if by smell: has a nose for gossip.

  4. :: noun

    The characteristic smell of a wine or liqueur; bouquet.

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").