Terminology for pairs of words with the same meaning, similar or same pronunciation but different spelling
Is there a term describe word pairs like colour/color that have the same meaning, similar or same pronunciation but a different spelling?
The most common examples I can think of are English/American spelling variants, though there are alternative transliterations of foreign words would fit the bill too (e.g., Ziggurat/Ziqqurat).
I was wondering if there is a recognised word for describing these word pairings as we have terminology like "homonym", "heteronym" etc. for words with different meanings.
Solution 1:
The word you could be looking for is variant
Definition:
1 obsolete : variable
2 : manifesting variety, deviation, or disagreement
3 : varying usually slightly from the standard form
(examples) variant readings; variant spellings
Also, from google search:
Solution 2:
This diagram on Wikipedia suggests that there is no such word: