Let
$v$ be a henselian valuation of any rank of a field
$K$ and let
$\bar{v}$ be the unique extension of
$v$ to a fixed algebraic closure
$\overline{K}$ of
$K$. In 2005, we studied properties of those pairs
$\left( \theta ,\,\alpha \right)$ of elements of
$\overline{K}$ with
$\left[ K\left( \theta \right):K \right]\,>\,\left[ K\left( \alpha \right):K \right]$ where
$\alpha $ is an element of smallest degree over
$K$ such that
$$\bar{v}\left( \theta \,-\,\alpha \right)\,=\,\sup \left\{ \bar{v}\left( \theta \,-\,\beta \right)\,|\,\beta \,\in \,\bar{K},\,\left[ K\left( \beta \right):K \right]\,<\,\left[ K\left( \theta \right):K \right] \right\}\,.$$
Such pairs are referred to as distinguished pairs. We use the concept of liftings of irreducible polynomials to give a different characterization of distinguished pairs.