Generate words with similar spelling and/or sounding from a list of words given in arguments.

similar_words.py

import sys

#
# Generation config
#

PRINT_COLS = 8
LETTERS_CHANGED = 2

#
# Sounds config
#

SOUNDS = {
    'a': ['e'],
    'b': ['p'],
    'c': ['s', 'k'],
    'd': ['t'],
    'e': ['i', ''],
    'f': ['v'],
    'g': ['j', 'k'],
    'h': ['', 'w', 'y'],
    'i': ['e', 'y'],
    'j': ['y', 'g'],
    'k': [],
    'l': [],
    'm': ['n'],
    'n': ['m'],
    'o': ['e'],
    'p': ['b'],
    'q': ['k'],
    'r': ['l'],
    's': ['z'],
    't': ['s', 'd'],
    'u': ['o', 'e'],
    'v': ['w', 'f', 'u'],
    'w': ['f', 'v', 'u', 'h', ''],
    'x': ['c', 'k', 's', 'z'],
    'y': ['i', 'j', 'u'],
    'z': ['s', 'x'],
}

def get_sounds(letter):
    related_sounds = set(SOUNDS[letter])
    for sound, letters in SOUNDS.iteritems():
        if sound in related_sounds:
            related_sounds.update(letters)
        if letter in letters:
            related_sounds.add(sound)
            related_sounds.update(letters)
    return related_sounds

# Update every sound entry with related sounds
SOUNDS = { k : get_sounds(k) for k in SOUNDS.keys() }

#
# Generate variants of input words using SOUNDS
#

def variants(word):
    yield word
    for i, letter in enumerate(word):
        for related_letter in SOUNDS[letter]:
            yield word[:i] + related_letter + word[i+1:]

def multi_variants(word, levels = 1):
    i = 0
    if levels > 0:
        for var in variants(word):
            yield var
            for v in multi_variants(var, levels-1):
                yield v

i = 0
words = sys.argv[1:]
max_width = max(len(w) for w in words)
for word in words:
    for var in multi_variants(word, levels = LETTERS_CHANGED):
        print ("{0:%s} " % max_width).format(var),
        i += 1
        if i >= PRINT_COLS:
            i = 0
            print