lies, lyes, lyse

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

The answer is simple: lies, lyes, lyse are homophones of the English language.

lies
  1. :: noun

    Plural form of lie.

  2. :: verb

    Third-person singular simple present indicative form of lie.

  3. :: adjective

    Great, wonderful

lyes
  1. ::

    A Middle English variant of lees. See lee.

lyse
  1. :: verb-transitive

    To undergo or cause to undergo lysis.

Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License, from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, 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").