Seven letter words change one or two letter to make a new word

prosper

rescore

screeds

recedes

recipes

special

clasped

escaped

speeder

Departs

petered

pretend

Dentyne

needing

engines

ingenue

signage

Whoops! Missed it. Playing off of Elendil’s “ingenue”

You can’t make signage out of ingenue, you need a,s, and another g.

Playing off ingenue…

unguent

ungulae

unglued