The words palate, palette, pallet sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do palate, palette, pallet sound the same even though they are completely different words?
The answer is simple: palate, palette, pallet are homophones of the English language.
The roof of the mouth in vertebrates having a complete or partial separation of the oral and nasal cavities and consisting of the hard palate and the soft palate.
Botany The projecting part on the lower lip of a bilabiate corolla that closes the throat, as in a snapdragon.
The sense of taste: delicacies pleasing to the most refined palate.
A board, typically with a hole for the thumb, which an artist can hold while painting and on which colors are mixed.
The range of colors used in a particular painting or by a particular artist: a limited palette.
The range of qualities inherent in nongraphic art forms such as music and literature.
A projection on a machine part, such as a pawl for controlling the motion of a ratchet wheel in a watch escapement, that engages the teeth of a ratchet wheel to convert reciprocating motion to rotary motion or vice versa.
A wooden, shovellike potter's tool used for mixing and shaping clay.
A metal tool used for printing on book bindings.
A fine brush used for taking up and applying gold leaf.
Definitions from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition 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").