Homophones are words that sound alike but have different meanings and spellings, such as won/one and there/their/to. Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings, like read, tire, and bow. The document provides examples of homophones like sea/see and meat/meet, and homographs such as tear and row. It asks the reader to identify which word pairs are homophones and which are homographs.