pealed, peeled

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

The answer is simple: pealed, peeled are homophones of the English language.

pealed
  1. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of peal.

  2. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of peal.

peeled
  1. :: adjective

    With the outermost layer removed.

  2. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of peel.

Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License and Wordnik.

Share pealed, peeled

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").