fated, feted

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

The answer is simple: fated, feted are homophones of the English language.

fated
  1. :: adjective

    Governed by fate; predetermined.

  2. :: adjective

    Condemned to death or destruction; doomed: the fated city of Troy.

feted
  1. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of fete.

  2. :: adjective

    honoured, celebrated

Definitions from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition, from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 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").