Which pair exemplifies high neighborhood density?

Which pair exemplifies high neighborhood density?

• A. Adventurous and Frequent
• B. The and You
• C. Mat and Bat
• D. Giant and Germ

Answer: (C)

Neighborhood density is about how many real words sit one phoneme away from a given word. Words with high density are short and have a lot of simple one-phoneme changes that still form real words. For a short CVC like mat, you can swap the initial consonant to get bat, hat, pat, fat, cat, sat, and so on, many of which are common words. That abundance of near-neighbors makes each of these words sit in a crowded neighborhood. Pairing two such high-density words together makes the concept clear: both mat and bat have lots of one-phoneme-away words, so the pair exemplifies a high neighborhood density. The other options involve longer, less flexible words or function words with far fewer near neighbors, so they don’t illustrate density as effectively.

Neighborhood density is about how many real words sit one phoneme away from a given word. Words with high density are short and have a lot of simple one-phoneme changes that still form real words. For a short CVC like mat, you can swap the initial consonant to get bat, hat, pat, fat, cat, sat, and so on, many of which are common words. That abundance of near-neighbors makes each of these words sit in a crowded neighborhood.

Pairing two such high-density words together makes the concept clear: both mat and bat have lots of one-phoneme-away words, so the pair exemplifies a high neighborhood density. The other options involve longer, less flexible words or function words with far fewer near neighbors, so they don’t illustrate density as effectively.