teas, tease, tees, tis

The words teas, tease, tees, tis sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do teas, tease, tees, tis sound the same even though they are completely different words?

The answer is simple: teas, tease, tees, tis are homophones of the English language.

teas
  1. :: noun

    Plural form of tea.

tease
  1. :: verb-transitive

    To annoy or pester; vex.

  2. :: verb-transitive

    To make fun of; mock playfully.

  3. :: verb-transitive

    To arouse hope, desire, or curiosity in without affording satisfaction.

  4. :: verb-transitive

    To urge persistently; coax: teasing their mother for more candy.

tees
  1. :: noun

    Plural form of tee.

tis
  1. ::

    A common contraction of it is.

Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License, from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition, from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English and Wordnik.

Share teas, tease, tees, tis

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").