sexed, sext

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

The answer is simple: sexed, sext are homophones of the English language.

sexed
  1. :: adjective

    having a sex; being male or female

  2. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of sex.

sext
  1. :: noun

    Ecclesiastical The fourth of the seven canonical hours.

  2. :: noun

    Ecclesiastical The time of day set aside for this service, usually the sixth hour, or noon.

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").