Letter change
A specified letter is changed to make a new word or phrase. Example (a third-letter change): pastry, pantry.
The solution: A = wither, B = either. (The solution would appear as “(w/e)ither”.)
Letter changes can have more than two parts. Example: boast, beast, blast.
If the last letter is being changed, the flat is called a last-letter change. Example: molts, molto is called a last-letter, instead of a fifth-letter, change.
In a reversed letter change, a letter is changed in a word or phrase and the result is then reversed to make another. Example (reversed second-letter change): twanger, regnant.
In a terminal-letter change, the first and last letters of a word are changed to different letters. Examples: Spider-man, epidermal and grimace, primacy.
In a palindrome-to-letter change, a group of three or more letters that form a palindrome are replaced by a single letter to form a second word or phrase. Examples: C(ana)da, c(o)da; and Can(ada), can(e).
In a Brookline letter change, a word or phrase changes each one of its letters in turn to make others. Example: BASE = rice, ONE = nice, TWO = race, THREE = rile, FOUR = rich.
The solution: BASEWORD = chase, A = phase, B = cease, C = chose, D = chafe, E = chasm.
The Brookline letter change was introduced by Newrow (from Brookline MA) in 1991.
In a Redmond letter change, change each letter of a word in order, forming a new word at each step. Example: risk, disk, desk, deck, deco. The Redmond letter change was invented by Qoz (of Redmond WA) in October 2005.
Seealso repeated-letter change and sound change.