Lawrence

@NigelJ's provided the proper solution to this problem (no pun intended). However, for the general issue of how you treat abbreviations and the like, the general principle is that you write it with an if you (intend to) pronounce it with an initial vowel, and a otherwise. So, for example, NASA is often pronounced as a word, not as individual letters, so it would be "a NASA spaceship". If you pronounced it as enn ay ess ay, it would be "an NASA spaceship" because "enn" starts with a vowel sound. That's why people are referencing pronunciation on your question about writing.

Your own term "similar" fits the bill.

@Lambie John Lawler's keep cool pair is convincing, though I didn't detect much of a difference between '_g_et' and '_g_ot'. There is perhaps something there if the pair is pronounced as "gyet" / "gaaht".

Jabba's chair banged its way across the tiles with Leia's chair chuckling close behind. Out of nowhere, Luke's chair shushed past with well-controlled force.

@Heartspring Excellent. It can be difficult for new members to get up to speed with the community's expectations, so every bit helps. Since your edit makes some 'usage' content explicit in the question, I'll vote to re-open.

I don't have a word that fits your stated context, but the generic process is sometimes called elimination. If that word works for you, please edit your question to add a sample sentence where the word would fit.

@AndrewLeach Would the sentence in the OP with square brackets count as a sample context? All it needs are quote marks or similar.

I've voted to reopen this question. In the context of computer interfaces, OK/Fail is a common pairing. Even if there wasn't a common term for the opposite to OK, it's not off-topic to ask for one when the sense of the desired opposite is given. Nevertheless, I would ask the OP to try to find a sentence where the antonym naturally arises. This is because EL&U works with English as a communicative language. If a user-interface element such as a cross or a tick can replace a word, the question would be more about UI than about English as a language.

@JesseSteele Thanks for running in this election. I voted for you, but them's the breaks, as Rand al'Thor said. Hang around anyway, and welcome to EL&U. :)

With the extra hour or so each weekday you now have, I hope to see you around on the boards. Happy (mod) retirement!

@MattE.Эллен My regret in this election is that you're retiring from the mod team. Thank you again for donating your time to moderating EL&U. You've weathered the controversies of recent years well, as has the rest of our mod team. The transition was indeed quick, but here's hoping that the new mods continue the tradition of friendliness and diligence that you have contributed to.

@Mari-LouA Thank you. I wouldn't have run at all had it not been for your request. It's been good reconnecting with EL&U, and seeing the topic of community come up in a more positive light this election. I'm grateful for the messages of personal support that I wouldn't have otherwise seen, so thank you for asking me to consider running for this election.

@Randal'Thor Thanks! You've always been supportive, all the way back to when I was pretty new to chat rooms and you supported my request to be owner of Sandy Lines.

@ElectionBot Congratulations @Laurel and @NVZ!

:)

@ElectionBot That's a nice round number in binary.

Thank you, @ElectionBot. According to the badges, it looks like I have poor Sportsmanship and stewardship, don't copy-edit, don't invest or marshall, and am unrefined. I'm wondering what I'm doing as a candidate.

@ElectionBot What is my candidate score?

@ElectionBot How is the candidate score calculated?

Virtual tea from a virtual kettle for Oleg. :)

No response. Puts a kettle on himself.

@ElectionBot make some tea for Oleg.

@OlegValteriswithUkraine Oh, it was at your request. I should have looked more carefully. Thank you.

Polite, too. :)

@ElectionBot That's very kind of you.

@OlegValteriswithUkraine Haha, nicely done in the long-standing tradition of Easter eggs and the like.

@ElectionBot Help

@Mari-LouA You can get the commands for ElectionBot this way:

@ElectionBot What are the responsibilities of a moderator?

@ElectionBot Who should I vote for?

I've already voted, but I'm curious ...

@terdon Thanks @OlegValteriswithUkraine!

G'night.

:)

@JesseSteele If he did, he's ignoring us.

Do mods have to turn on the functionality?

Let's give it another go.

@ElectionBot how many users voted?

@terdon Now that would be interesting. It would give us a sense of how much community engagement we have.

It seems that SE doesn't like live election results.

@terdon Oh, phew.

@NVZ I tried something like that, then found that after awhile, sock pairs started acquiring their own subtly different tint and length. Sock matching has since made a comeback. On the other hand, I usually wear long pants, so mismatched socks aren't a big issue.

There's still time.

@terdon Yikes. I was hoping the others would get voted in. :)

@terdon Oh, I see.

Looks like ElectionBot is room-specific.

@ElectionBot help

@ElectionBot alive

Just testing ...