homophone, /'hɑmə,fon/

[trochee]

peak: noun: the tip of a mountain
peek: noun: short look; verb: to take a short look
pique: noun: anger, frustration, irritation; verb, to stimulate, especially as in to pique s.o.'s interest, probably only distantly related to the nominal sense; (noun: apparently also a fabric and a way of inlaying tortoiseshell, though they may be pronounced /pike/ not /pik/, disqualifying them as homophones).

[update from marnanel:]
Peke: noun, slangy: a small yappy dog (from Pekinese)
[update from _dkg_:]
peek: verb, computer jargon: to read the value of a memory location directly

Comments

[firinel.livejournal.com]

I always have trouble with homophones. I usually remember spelling based on sound, which is a rather silly thing to do if you're hard of hearing anyway.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

heh -- it isn't just you, although your recent post was a catalyst. And it's not intended as a judgement, just an observation.

I'm a very logos-oriented person, and very spelling-sensitive, so to me they all have different flavors.

[firinel.livejournal.com]

I didn't feel you were judging me, don't worry :)
But if you do see something like that, feel free to point it out. I will, generally, find it embarrassing, which is a fantastic motivating point to force me to remember the correct spelling ;)