The term for words pronounced alike but different in meaning, such as “flour” and “flower,” is homophone.
The word comes from Greek roots meaning “same sound.” Homophones share pronunciation but may differ in spelling and meaning: flour is a baking ingredient, while a flower is the reproductive structure of a plant. Other familiar examples include sea and see, or two, to, and too.
Homophones are not necessarily homographs. Homographs share spelling, whereas homophones share sound; some words can be both. For example, rose can mean a flower or the past tense of rise, and it is spelled and pronounced the same in both uses. The broader term homonym is used differently by different authorities, which sometimes creates confusion.
Accent matters as well. Words such as merry, marry, and Mary are homophones for many American speakers but remain distinct in some dialects. Homophones are especially common in English because spelling preserves historical forms while pronunciation changes over time, and because English has absorbed vocabulary from many languages.