Martin,

"And I don't see the problem with plurals / past tenses etc. Are you saying that a plural isn't a word? Why should a plural or past tense be any less a word than a singular or base form? In many cases, these 'inflected' forms are the most frequent and first learnt by children."

ORIGINAL POST: "Anyone know of examples in English of three words with different spellings and meanings but are pronounced the same........."

At the outset, this seemed like a fairly innocuous statement.

Of course, plurals and past tenses are words. I am only suggesting, for the sake of purity, clarity, uniformity and consistency, that you cannot MIX plurals, tenses and base/root/stem words.

"preys, prays, praise" Praise is not plural
"yous (Ulster), ewes, yews, use" Use is not plural
(to say nothing about pronunciation)
Not acceptable. But, it is acceptable to use all past tense or all plurals if the pronunciation is the same for all words.

"'inflected'" forms are just that, inflected. And therefore, not true and accurate pronunciation of the root word. Again, however, if all examples are of "inflected" variety, then, acceptable. Further, I did not take into consideration the Standard British English version. Perhaps, I should have given more thought to this before I arbitrarily decided to dismiss some words.

"In many cases, these 'inflected' forms are the most frequent and first learnt by children."

Indeed. Not intended to denigrate the importance and frequency of use of the "inflected" word.

" I wouldn't rely too heavily on Dictionary.com - I found it pretty limited - try some others too"

Point taken. Perhaps a poor choice for reference work. Limitations notwithstanding, for my simple needs I find Dictionary.com to be fast (a real plus on the China internet) and the format to be agreeable to my eyes and taste.

Too, this is hardly a scholarly endeavor. And, I'm not compiling a lexicon.

Based solely on previously mentioned arbitrary criteria.... I still am not convinced that the remaining entries in your post are acceptable.

Regardless, since I am an agreeable sort of chap, if you insist, I will restore ALL of your entries to an acceptable status, including the letters and the contractions, provided you buy me a pint of Goose Island India Pale Ale.

http://beeradvocate.com/news/stories_read/f-973189