Word logic puzzle
Word Ladder
Climb from one word to another, one letter at a time.
How to play
Choose a letter in the current word, then choose its replacement on the keyboard. Each step changes exactly one letter and must make a real word. Climb to the target without using any word twice. Letters already matching the target turn mint green.
Use arrows to choose a position, type a letter to change it, and press Escape to deselect. Backspace or Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes a step. Both keyboards can enter every letter, including U. Restart to return to the starting word; New puzzle chooses another ladder. Easy has three letters, Medium four, and Hard five.
Hints point to a position and a letter. If your route blocks every familiar continuation, the hint tells you which word to undo back to. Practice hints need no confirmation. The practice score uses the daily formula, including the hint penalty, but only your best score for each difficulty is kept on this device.
Five ways to find your route
- Look for letters already in place. Mint-green letters match the goal in that position. They are a guide, not a lock: you can change them again if your route needs it.
- Try a different vowel. When a word feels stuck, changing a vowel can open another family of words. Every new word still needs to be accepted.
- Think backwards from the goal. Imagine one-letter neighbours of the target, then look for a route from your current word to one of them.
- Use familiar endings. Common endings can connect otherwise distant words. Compare positions carefully; only one letter may change at a time.
- A detour is fine. You do not have to make a goal letter on every turn. Undo freely, or ask for a hint if the familiar route is hard to spot.
Questions
What is par?
Par is the fewest changes needed using the familiar-word list. Each change must make a valid word, and a word cannot appear twice in your ladder.
Can I finish under par?
Yes. The accepted-word list includes less familiar words. A legal shorter route earns 150 extra points per step saved.
Which words count?
The game uses a fixed, filtered English word list derived from SCOWL. Easy uses three-letter words, Medium four, and Hard five. The same accepted list is used by the browser and server.
Why is my word rejected?
It must be in this game’s accepted list, differ from the current word in exactly one place, and not have appeared earlier in this ladder. Undo to try another route. A hint highlights one position and letter; it does not play for you.
When does the daily ladder change?
At 00:00 UTC. Everyone gets the same frozen four-letter puzzle. Daily hints cost 300 points, and a verified daily solve adds a book. This ladder is part of the official daily rotation.
A little history
Lewis Carroll popularised this word puzzle as Doublets in Vanity Fair on 29 March 1879. His own preface records the date; it also acknowledges that a similar American game may have existed earlier. Read the reprint of Carroll’s Doublets preface.
Word-list source
The fixed English vocabulary comes from SCOWL (wordlist-english 1.2.1), with a curated familiar subset. Read the SCOWL copyright and licence notice. No dictionary or puzzle download is needed while you play.