What are the word records for substitution?

language/english/spelling/relations.to.other.words/entire.word/substitution New

New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.

Problem

What are the word records for substitution?
(Spelling / Relations to Other Words / Entire Word)

  a.  onalosi or complete garble group (word that can have a letter changed anywhere to form another word), longest [3-108,4-171,5-54]
  b.  isolano (word that cannot have a letter changed anywhere to form another word), shortest [2-62,3-108,4-171,12-153,13-28]
  c.  word ladders, networks or stairs [6-67,156,9-119,20-168,22-28,76,88,141,216,23-154,31-89]
  i.  full vowel substitution, longest [1-156,3-48,8-190,207,9-17,11-109,12-37,22-172,216,23-92]
  v.  consecutive letter substitution, longest
  x.  garble group, most [1-165,3-144,211,4-15,6-67,156,12-217]
  d.  letter pairs, all 325 possible [2-70]

[ Editor: question framed by the editor from the headings of the Taxonomy of Wordplay. ]

Show solution

[ Editor: from the Taxonomy of Wordplay, www.questrel.com, retrieved 28 Oct 2026. Classes (common, uncommon, hyphenated words, phrases), scores, ties (-t) and the source codes in brackets are explained in language/english/word.records.introduction. ]

Sources: [9-161]

a.  onalosi or complete garble group (word that can have a letter changed anywhere to form another word), longest [3-108,4-171,5-54]
        common words: beers : deers & biers & bears & beefs & beery (5-t)
        common words: boots : coots & blots & boats & boobs & booth (5-t)
        common words: clink : blink & chink & clank & click & cline (5-t)
        common words: crass : brass & class & cress & crabs & crash (5-t)
        common words: crows : brows & chows & craws & crocs & crowd (5-t)
        common words: bales : dales & biles & babes & balas & baled (5-t)
        common words: dells : bells & dills & deals & deles & della (5-t)
        common words: cress : dress & chess & crass & creds & crest (5-t)
        common words: ducks : bucks & decks & dunks & duces & ducky (5-t)
        ... and 20 others
        uncommon words: classes : glasses & chasses & clesses & clauses & clashes & classis & classed (7-t)
        uncommon words: candies : bandies & condies & caddies & cannies & candles & candids & candied (7-t)
        uncommon words: caracas : maracas & curacas & camacas & caricas & carajas & caracks & caracal (7-t)
        uncommon words: pasters : basters & pesters & palters & passers & pastors & pastels & pastern (7-t)
        uncommon words: poppies : coppies & pappies & potpies & popsies & popples & poppits & poppied (7-t)
b.  isolano (word that cannot have a letter changed anywhere to form another word), shortest [2-62,3-108,4-171,12-153,13-28]
        common words: envy (4-t)
        common words: evil (4-t)
        common words: upon (4-t)
        phrases: XML (3-t)
        phrases: WNL (3-t)
c.  word ladders, networks or stairs [6-67,156,9-119,20-168,22-28,76,88,141,216,23-154,31-89]
        i.  full vowel substitution, longest [1-156,3-48,8-190,207,9-17,11-109,12-37,22-172,216,23-92]
                common words: patting & petting & pitting & potting & putting (7)
                uncommon words: chacking & checking & chicking & chocking & chucking (8-t)
                uncommon words: clacking & clecking & clicking & clocking & clucking (8-t)
                uncommon words: halloing & helloing & hilloing & holloing & hulloing (8-t)
                uncommon words: massiest & messiest & missiest & mossiest & mussiest (8-t)
                uncommon words: rackling & reckling & rickling & rockling & ruckling (8-t)
                uncommon words: tracking & trecking & tricking & trocking & trucking (8-t)
        ii.  full vowel including y substitution, longest
                common words: as & es & is & os & us & ys (2)
                uncommon words: happed & hepped & hipped & hopped & hupped & hypped (6)
        iii.  full vowel including y substitution, shortest  1
                common words: as & es & is & os & us & ys (2)
        iv.  consecutive letter substitution, most
                common words: bared = cared = dared = eared = fared (5-t)
                common words: baring = caring = daring = earing = faring (5-t)
                common words: hokey = holey = homey = honey = hooey (5-t)
                uncommon words: jat = kat = lat = mat = nat = oat = pat = qat = rat = sat = tat (11-t)
                uncommon words: jats = kats = lats = mats = nats = oats = pats = qats = rats = sats = tats (11-t)
        v.  consecutive letter substitution, longest
                common words: porting = posting = potting = pouting (7)
                uncommon words: portering = postering = pottering = poutering (9)
                phrases: w chromosomes = X chromosomes = Y chromosomes = z chromosomes (12)
        vi.  minimal-length or ideal, longest [21-103,23-22,154]
                emplants = emplanes = enplanes = enplaned = unplaned = unplayed = unprayed = ungrayed = ungreyed (8)
        vii.  reversal, minimal length [12-44,151,153,13-26,84,122,14-90,15-16,16-164,21-103,23-91]
        viii.  minimal alphabetic or pangrammatic, nine letter [18-90,20-154,21-145,22-223]
        ix.  minimal alphabetic or pangrammatic, four and five letter [23-125,215]
        x.  garble group, most [1-165,3-144,211,4-15,6-67,156,12-217]
        xi.  square and root [3-122,12-217]
        xii.  transaddition set, most [15-151]
        xiii.  longest [12-36,119,152,23-154]
        xiv.  alphabetic substitution [15-208]
        xv.  substitute-letter transposals, most [17-195,18-23,220,23-109]
        xvi.  letter sets [11-158]
        xvii.  stepladder [22-240,23-27]
d.  letter pairs, all 325 possible [2-70]

-- Taxonomy of Wordplay, www.questrel.com