Learn English – the difference between American and British pronunciations of “world” and “girl”

I'm sitting here saying the two words to myself and marveling that I never noticed that similarity in pronunciation before. :)

The difference is all in the "or."

In worship, the "or" is pronounced more as "ur" by most Americans. We say it as "wurship."

Warship is pronounced more the way it looks: "wawrship," with the mouth opening a bit wider on the "a."

Accent is on the first syllable in both words.

'Distinctive' can describe a single thing by itself and says that it stands out or is remarkable, or a feature that helps distinguish two things:

The distinctive style of van Gogh was not understood during his lifetime.

'Distinct' means the difference is not vague, and applies to one thing in relation to others:

A flu outbreak occurred on two distinct occasions.

That is, one thing is distinct from another if you can distinguish them easily, and a feature that helps distinguish them is distinctive.

But there is much semantic overlap, so one can often be replaced with the other with hardly any change in meaning.