The words liens, leans sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do liens, leans sound the same even though they are completely different words?
The answer is simple: liens, leans are homophones of the English language.
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of lean.
Plural form of lien.
Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 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").