This is something I have thought about for a long time. Take L-ST. No matter what vowel you put in there, it is a word.

LAST, LEST, LIST, LOST, LUST

Of course, this doesn't work for LYST, since I don't think that's a word, but for the purpose of this topic I think we can ignore y.

So, what other sets of words have this property?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Seanahan,

PAT, PET, PIT, POT, PUT and BAT, BET, BIT, BOT, BUT [where BOT = (1) to borrow, bum; (2) a small computer program] are commonly used by phoneticians because they can be extended to almost all the vowel sounds of English: BEET, BITE, BERT, BOUGHT, BOUT, BATE, BIRD, BEARD, BOYD, BORED, etc.

...and if I'm not mistaken that was the NPR "Puzzle-of-the-week" posed by Will Shortz a couple of months ago!

P_CK is another answer to Willz's (that's "Will" and a short "z") four-letter challenge.
As is P_NT, if you allow us to the bridge into French.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: haberdasher,

quote:

---

This is something I have thought about for a long time. Take L-ST. No matter what vowel you put in there, it is a word.

---

(... in enumerating the Seven Deadly Sins ...)
At least let's list lust last lest lust be lost.