bird, burd, burred

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

The answer is simple: bird, burd, burred are homophones of the English language.

bird
  1. :: noun

    Chiefly British Slang A young woman.

  2. :: verb-intransitive

    To observe and identify birds in their natural surroundings.

  3. :: noun

    Any of various warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered vertebrates of the class Aves, having forelimbs modified to form wings.

  4. :: noun

    Such an animal hunted as game.

burd
  1. :: noun

    poetic Maiden, young woman

burred
  1. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of burr.

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").