Change exactly one letter at each step
| Tap a word | Step to it if it differs by one letter. |
| Reach the target | Complete the ladder. |
Word Ladder gives you a starting word and a target, and one rule: change a single letter at a time, and every step must be a real word. Turn CAT into DOG, or COLD into WARM, one letter at a time.
Lewis Carroll invented this in 1877 and called it Doublets. It is a genuinely elegant puzzle because it sits exactly between vocabulary and logic: knowing lots of words is not enough, since you also have to find the path, and the shortest route is rarely the obvious one.
Work from both ends. Looking at what could come immediately before the target, as well as what follows your start, meets in the middle far faster than pushing forward blindly.
Focus on the letters that must change. Compare start and target: the positions where they already agree usually stay fixed, and the ones that differ tell you what the intermediate words need to do.
Change the vowel first on short words. Vowels in the middle of three-letter words are the most flexible position, so CAT to COT is usually a more productive opening than changing a consonant.
Do not fear a detour. Sometimes the route to the target moves a letter away from it temporarily, which feels wrong but is often the only path the word pool allows.
Change exactly one letter per step, and every step must be a word in the puzzle's list.
Lewis Carroll, in 1877. He called it Doublets and published puzzles in a magazine.
Yes. Each ladder was checked to confirm a path exists from the start to the target within its own word list.
No, and that restriction is the entire puzzle.
Nothing at all. The whole of Word Ladder is built into the page itself, which is why there is no loading bar and no waiting before you can play.