Is there a word to describe words that sound similar. but which are to0 distinct to be homonyms?

Question

Is there a word, phrase, or other descriptor, that describes two or more words that have a similar - but very specifically not identical - sound to each other, but which have different meanings?

Something that would apply to words that CANNOT be classified as homonym but which might be easily confused by someone who doesn't use either word often.

For example, a descriptor that would not include weak and week (which are homonyms), but which would include week and leek, but also not necessarily rhyming words, such as or infant and inflate.

The context of this is a comedy sketch featuring a conversation between two people, where one of them uses an incorrect - but superficially similarly sounding word - to describe something, and the other corrects them.

I'm looking for a short, snappy answer and direct answer with some examples, rather than a debate type answer where the actual conclusion might be dependant on multiple variables such as context\pronunciation.

Answer 1

Half rhyme, near-rhyme, lazy rhyme, slant rhyme, imperfect rhyme and ilk are probably the closest standard terms used for what you are looking for. Unfortunately these terms refer more to the rhyming aspect of words (i.e last syllable similarity) and not the homophonic aspect (i.e whole word similarity). To me, this is crying out for you to coin a new word, and if you want it to be understood and accepted I would suggest “near-homophone” or “slant homophone” or one of the other rhyme analogs.