This is one of my own that I’ve wondered about for years (I know, my live is pretty boring)
How many words out there can form another word by replacing one of its vowel with any other vowel? The only one I can think of is the following:
PAT, PET, PIT, POT, PUT
I can think of tons of other words where I can get four words, but with the last vowel, I don’t get a real word.
Is the above set the only one that works?
Brian
How about…
bat
bet
bit
bot
but
Try “B”
Bat, Bet, Bit, Bot, But
“H”
Hat, Het, Hit, Hot, Hut
het adj : made warm or hot; “a heated swimming pool”; “wiped his heated-up face with a large bandana”; (het' is a dialectal variant of heated’ as in “he was all het up and sweaty”)
“G”
Gat, Get, Git, Got, Gut
gat1 (gt)
n. A narrow passage extending inland from a shore; a channel.
Anyway, I guess the answer is yes 
Zette
How about:
bat: flying mammal; baseball tool
bet: wager
bit: small amount
bot: larva of a botfly; scrounger (Australian slang)
but: conjunction
pap: a nipple
pep: happiness; spirit
pip: a game piece in backgammon
pop: soft drink; small explosive noise
pup: infant dog, seal, other mammals
tan: light brown
ten: 10
tin: metallic element
ton: 2000 pounds
tun: a measure of liquid capacity, usually equivalent to 252 wine gallons.
A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y?
OK:
byt: to attack with the mouth
pyp: a long hollow tube used to transport fluids
tyn: a prong of a fork; an actress on Cagney & Lacey
More:
bad: evil; not good
bed: furniture to sleep on
bid: to offer a price at auction
bod: slang for body
bud: plant structure in immature form; e.g., flower bud, leaf bud
byd: to endure, to wait.
Hmm, bot and tun seem to leave me lacking a bit… Maybe I just need to expand my vocabulary.
Anybody think of any four letter ones yet?
Maybe I should just find an online dictionary that will let me do a pattern search.
Brian
Here a link that does just that.
Last
Lest
List
Lost
Lust
A random anecdote:
This summer, a bus stop I drove by nearly every day had an advertisement on it that said M_LES, where the _ was a picture of a bag of groceries. I never figured out what it was supposed to say… MALES? MILES? MOLES? MULES? I guess MELES isn’t really a word, although it seems to be a genus of European badgers
patter
petter
pitter
potter
putter
Dane
dene (a small valley)
dine
done
dune
dyne
bot slang for ‘robot’
-SSB
Bag, Beg, Big, Bog, Bug…
Ball, Bell, Bill, Boll (as in weevil), Bull
patty
petty
pity
potty
putty
pity it’s a bit flawed…
Whoa! What’s up with the ghost poster, the one who posted at 11:07 on Sept. 8? Did anyone else notice that?