rex, wrecks

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

The answer is simple: rex, wrecks are homophones of the English language.

rex
  1. :: noun

    An animal which has a genetic recessive variation that causes the guard hairs to be very short or fully lacking.

wrecks
  1. :: noun

    Plural form of wreck.

  2. :: verb

    Third-person singular simple present indicative form of wreck.

Definitions 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").