If Americans write "meters" instead of "metres" (the street is 300 meters long), how do they write "meters" as in parking meters?

If they are both the same, how do they distinguish between the two?

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As the others have said, context. Same way one knows the difference between tree bark vs. a dog’s bark. A wound (injury) vs. the past participle of wind—and for that matter, to wind one’s watch, vs. the wind blowing outside, to blow one’s horn vs, the “low blow”. And so on. 🙂

HeadGirl · 41-45, F

@bijouxbroussard Wound (injury) is pronounced "woond". The past participle of "wind" is pronounced "wownd". Likewise, that "wind" rhymes with "find" and it's not the same as the first syllable of "window". But "metre" and "meter" are both pronounced the same.

bijouxbroussard · F

@HeadGirl Just like “bark”, yet you know the difference, yes ? In writing all you can go by is context. So it is in speaking the language.

SW-User

@HeadGirl By that logic, you may also ask how we distinguish the words "hear" from "here." They both sound the same. Again, as my friend stated above: context. It's funny to me how you seem angry over this. Let us hurry and change our entire language rules to please you. 🙄

HeadGirl · 41-45, F

@SW-User "Hear" and "here" are completely unrelated words, so that's an example where context does make a world of difference.

bijouxbroussard · F

@HeadGirl You were the one who mentioned the way the words [b]sound[/b] being a factor. Those two words sound the same, yet we know the difference, because of context. And that’s the answer overall. We know because of [b]context[/b].

HeadGirl · 41-45, F

@bijouxbroussard No, we know the difference between those two because of the spelling. That is the first thing we notice.

Strictsinger · 61-69, M

@HeadGirl
Unless, of course, our conversation is spoken.
Interesting how complex it all gets, isn’t it?