The words ante, anti-, auntie, aunty sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do ante, anti-, auntie, aunty sound the same even though they are completely different words?
The answer is simple: ante, anti-, auntie, aunty are homophones of the English language.
Games The stake that each poker player must put into the pool before receiving a hand or before receiving new cards. See Synonyms at bet.
A price to be paid, especially as one's share; cost: "Whether they could actually turn back Soviet policy depended on many factors that Moscow might yet choose to test by upping the ante” ( Foreign Affairs).
Games To put (one's stake) into the pool in poker.
To pay: Let's ante up the bill.
Opposite: antimere.
Opposing; against: antiapartheid.
Counteracting; neutralizing: antacid.
Destroying: antiaircraft.
Informal Aunt.
Alternative spelling of auntie.
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").