words that are still words if you swap a vowel

vowel_swap_three_words.py

from string import ascii_lowercase

def load_dictionary():
    dictionary = set()
    with open("/usr/share/dict/words") as dictionary_file:
        for word in dictionary_file:
            dictionary.add(word.strip())
    return dictionary

VOWELS = ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u']

def vowel_swap_words():
    dictionary = load_dictionary()
    results = []
    for head in ascii_lowercase:
        for tail in ascii_lowercase:
            if all(head+vowel+tail in dictionary for vowel in VOWELS):
                results.append((head, tail))
    return results

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(vowel_swap_words())

vowel_swap_words.py

from string import ascii_lowercase

def load_dictionary():
    dictionary = set()
    with open("/usr/share/dict/words") as dictionary_file:
        for word in dictionary_file:
            dictionary.add(word.strip())
    return dictionary

VOWELS = ['a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u']

def vowel_swap_words():
    dictionary = load_dictionary()
    results = set()
    for word in dictionary:
        if "'" in word:
            continue  # exclude possessives
        for i, letter in enumerate(word):
            if letter in VOWELS:
                head, tail = word[:i], word[i+1:]
                if not head and not tail:
                    break  # exclude 'a', &c. as words
                if all(head+vowel+tail in dictionary for vowel in VOWELS):
                    results.add((head, tail))
    return results

if __name__ == "__main__":
    answer = vowel_swap_words()
    print(len(answer))
    print(answer)

# zmd@ReflectiveCoherence:~/Code/Misc$ python3 vowel_swap_words.py 
# 20
# {('f', 'r'), ('m', 'sses'), ('p', 'tting'), ('b', 'lls'), ('bl', 'nder'), ('p', 'ps'), ('p', 'ts'), ('p', 'tted'), ('p', 't'), ('p', 'p'), ('t', 'n'), ('b', 'll'), ('m', 'te'), ('l', 'st'), ('m', 'ss'), ('b', 'g'), ('p', 'cks'), ('p', 'ck'), ('t', 'ns'), ('m', 'tes')}