similar-sounding words; homophones; paronyms
Linguistic term for words that sound alike but may differ in meaning or origin. Often used in discussions of wordplay, poetry, or language learning.
Japanese has many similar-sounding words, like 'hashi' (bridge) and 'hashi' (chopsticks).
Distinguishing similar-sounding words is one of the difficult aspects of learning a foreign language.
類義語 are synonyms (words with similar meanings), whereas 類音語 are words with similar sounds.
Compound of 類 (るい, 'kind, similar') + 音 (おん, 'sound') + 語 (ご, 'word'). A straightforward Sino-Japanese coinage for the linguistic concept of paronyms.