The words swat, swot sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do swat, swot sound the same even though they are completely different words?
The answer is simple: swat, swot are homophones of the English language.
To deal a sharp blow to; slap.
A sharp blow; a slap.
one who swots
To study with effort or determination.
To study something with effort or determination (swot up on).
work
Definitions from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition, from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License and Wordnik.
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").