When two or more different (written) forms have the same pronunciation, they are described as homophones. Common examples are bare/bear, meat/meet, flour/ flower, pail/pale, right/write, sew/so and to/too/two.

We use the term homonyms when one form (written or spoken) has two or more unrelated meanings, as in these examples:

The temptation is to think that the two types of bank must be related in meaning. They are not. Homonyms are words that have separate histories and meanings, but have accidentally come to have exactly the same form.