I posted too hastily last month. The challenge was to name pairs of words where the change of a single letter in one yields another word with a completely different sound. Since I didn't sit on the post for weeks (as I often do), I didn't have time to remember all my favorite examples nor think up new ones.

A few pairs I knew but didn't recall at posting time: hereby-heresy, barely-barfly, and another favorite, prompted-promoted.

In the comments, Steve H suggested angel-anger. That makes me think of angle-anole (which is docked points because only Boggle players and herpetologists have ever heard of an anole).

A couple more pairs that I've dreamed up in the past month: fondle-fondue, simple-simile, and the excellent chortle-chorale, which will now rank among my favorites.

Too short to be impressive, but honorable mention by virtue of being a threesome: couch-cough-couth.

In a comment on an old thread, Brux wants to raise an issue that he and I discussed in email a few months ago: Can one name two words which are truly perfect synonyms?

The question arose when, in the course of sharing additions to his vocabulary, he mentioned that some word x means the same thing as some word y. I don't recall what the words were, but it hardly matters; it's a common enough claim. My response was that, like snowflakes in the axiom, no two words really mean exactly the same thing. There's always some shade of nuance separating the two. Even if the two really do have a near-identical definition, the very fact that one is more common than the other — or one has a Latinate feel while the other is Anglo-Saxon, or one is polysyllabic while the other is short — will lend a subtly different tone to each alternative.

Brux took this as a theory to be tested, and there followed an exchange in which he would propose a pair of synonyms to me and challenge me to explain the difference in meaning between the two. I have to admit he came up with some pairs that were tough for me to answer. On the last pair, if I remember correctly, I finally admitted to being stumped. Again, I don't recall the words, but I remember that one was Latin and one was Greek, both were relatively obscure and academic, and they entered the language at about the same time.

I might find the email were I to search my emailbox, but I'm sure Brux will remind me.

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