Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and origins, while homophones are pronounced the same but differ in spelling, meaning, or origin. For example, "bank" can refer to a financial institution or the land alongside a river, and homophones include "new" and "knew", which sound identical but have different spellings and meanings. Homographs and homophones are distinguished by homophones necessarily being pronounced the same while homographs only need to be spelled the same.