dine, dyne

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

The answer is simple: dine, dyne are homophones of the English language.

dine
  1. :: verb-intransitive

    To have dinner.

  2. :: verb-transitive

    To give dinner to; entertain at dinner: wined and dined the visiting senators.

dyne
  1. :: noun

    A centimeter-gram-second unit of force, equal to the force required to impart an acceleration of one centimeter per second per second to a mass of one gram.

Definitions 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").