The words liquor, licker sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do liquor, licker sound the same even though they are completely different words?
The answer is simple: liquor, licker are homophones of the English language.
Someone or something that licks.
An alcoholic beverage made by distillation rather than by fermentation.
A rich broth resulting from the prolonged cooking of meat or vegetables, especially greens. Also called pot liquor.
An aqueous solution of a nonvolatile substance.
A solution, emulsion, or suspension for industrial use.
Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License, from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition and Wordnik.
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").