The words mall, maul sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do mall, maul sound the same even though they are completely different words?
The answer is simple: mall, maul are homophones of the English language.
A large, often enclosed shopping complex containing various stores, businesses, and restaurants usually accessible by common passageways.
A street lined with shops and closed to vehicles.
A shady public walk or promenade.
Chiefly Upstate New York See median strip. See Regional Note at neutral ground.
A heavy, long-handled hammer used especially to drive stakes, piles, or wedges.
A heavy hammer having a wedge-shaped head and used for splitting logs.
Sports A play in Rugby in which a mass of players gathers around a ball carrier being tackled and attempts to gain possession of the ball when it is released.
Sports The mass of players during such a play.
Definitions 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").