peaked, peeked, piqued

The words peaked, peeked, piqued sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Why do peaked, peeked, piqued sound the same even though they are completely different words?

The answer is simple: peaked, peeked, piqued are homophones of the English language.

peaked
  1. :: adjective

    Ending in a peak; pointed: a peaked cap.

  2. :: adjective

    Having a sickly appearance: You're looking a little peaked today.

peeked
  1. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of peek.

piqued
  1. :: verb

    Simple past tense and past participle of pique.

Definitions from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition, from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License and Wordnik.

Share peaked, peeked, piqued

About Homophones

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").