The words coddling, codling sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do coddling, codling sound the same even though they are completely different words?
The answer is simple: coddling, codling are homophones of the English language.
Act in a sissifying way
Present participle of coddle.
A greenish elongated English apple used for cooking.
A small unripe apple.
A young cod.
Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License, from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition 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").