Beginner question: Chinese Homophones

TL;DR: How do people tell homophones apart in spoken Mandarin?

I have been chewing through vocabulary to get a feel for the way that words and characters are constructed. I have been told about confusion which can arise from confusing the different intonations, but there are many words in Mandarin which share the same sound and tone, at least when I read them in pinyin. Of course when written they have different characters, but when spoken they would presumably sound the exact same. Is there something that I am missing? Is this because pinyin is missing some distinguishing information, or are these words always told apart based on context?

Example:
all these words are pronounced: nì
restrained 泥
contrary 逆
Addicted to 溺
to look askance at 睨
to hide 匿
greasey 腻

familiar 暱

There are even more, of course.

I can see how context would help most of the time, but why is this never a source of misunderstanding?

Finally, if it is all based on context, then what is the point of having different characters but the same words?

Any illuminating information on this question would be really helpful to my understanding.

submitted by /u/lukub5
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