Homophones are words that are pronounced the same way but have different meanings. Sometimes they’re spelled identically and sometimes they aren’t. When two words sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings, they are known as homonyms. For example, “knead” and “need” are homonyms as well as homophones. Homophones can be further classified as homographs and heterographs. Homographs are words that are spelled the same way, could be pronounced differently, and have different meanings. Heterographs are words that are spelled differently and have different meanings but are still pronounced the same way. In contrast, heteronyms are words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently and have different meanings. An example is “tear,” as in “he had a tear in his eye,” and “tear,” as in “please tear up the paper”.

Source: Grammarly