In 1879, Lewis Carroll – the author of Alice in Wonderland – published a new puzzle he called “Doublets”. The idea was simple: turn one word into another by changing a single letter at a time, making a real word at every step. His first example turned HEAD into TAIL.
Nearly 150 years later, it’s still one of the most satisfying word puzzles around. Our Word Ladder is built on exactly the same idea. Here’s how it works, and how to climb each ladder in as few steps as possible.
How it works
You’re given a start word and a goal word, both four letters long. Build a chain from one to the other. Each new word – each “rung” of the ladder – must:
- change exactly one letter of the word before it,
- be a real word from the game’s word list, and
- not be a word you’ve already used in this chain.
Type your word and press Add rung (or Enter). The letter you changed is highlighted, so you can see the chain growing. Reach the goal word and you’ve solved it.
Par, and the “steps to go” counter
Every puzzle has a par: the fewest steps it can possibly be done in. Match par and you’ve found a perfect route. Take a few extra steps and you’ve still solved it – you just took the scenic route.
The game also gives you a brilliant bit of help. Between your last word and the goal, it shows how many steps you have left at best. It updates every time you add a rung, so it tells you straight away whether your last move brought you closer, kept you level, or sent you the wrong way.
The goal word also lights up any letters that already match your latest word, so you can see how much of the target you’ve got.
Let’s climb Lewis Carroll’s ladder
Let’s try Carroll’s original: HEAD → TAIL. In our word list, par is 5.
From HEAD there are twelve possible first moves, but they’re not all equal. Change H to L and you get LEAD – which actually leaves you six steps from TAIL, further than when you started. HEAT keeps you at five, so it doesn’t help. But HEAL, HELD and HEAR all bring you down to four. That’s what the “steps to go” counter tells you as you play.
Let’s take HEAL, because it already ends in L like TAIL. Here’s the whole ladder:
HEAD → HEAL → TEAL → TELL → TALL → TAIL
Look at how it works. First we fix the last letter (D to L). Then the first letter (H to T). Then we have to take a little detour – TEAL to TELL to TALL – because there’s no direct way to swap the middle letters. Five steps, right on par, just as Carroll solved it.
Tips for climbing faster
Compare the start and goal first. Before typing anything, look at which letters are already the same and which need changing. If only two letters differ, the answer might be very short. If all four differ, you know you’ll need at least four steps.
Lock in the letters you need. Once a letter matches the goal word, try not to change it again. Every change should be moving a letter towards the goal – unless you’re stuck.
Vowels are the tricky part. Swapping consonants is usually easy. Changing a vowel often needs a detour, like the TEAL → TELL → TALL move above. If you’re stuck, try changing a vowel to a different vowel first.
Sometimes you have to step sideways. Occasionally the only way forward is a move that doesn’t bring you closer – or even takes you one step further away. If every direct route is blocked, a sideways step can open up a new path.
Watch the counter. If the “steps to go” number goes up after a move, you’ve gone the wrong way. Press Undo, or tap any earlier rung in your chain to climb straight back down to it.
Plurals can help. Start and goal words are never plurals, but the rungs in between can be. A word ending in S can be a handy stepping stone.
Try working backwards. If you’re stuck, think about the goal word. What words are one letter away from it? If you can reach any of those, you’re one step from the end.
Three ways to play
The tabs at the top give you three different modes:
| Mode | What it is |
|---|---|
| Daily | One puzzle a day, the same for everyone. Usually 4–6 steps. |
| 250 Ladders | A numbered collection of 250 puzzles, from quick 3-step climbs to long 9-step ones. A grid shows which you’ve solved, which you did at par, and which are in progress. |
| Practice | A fresh random puzzle whenever you like. Pick Short (3–4 steps), Standard (5–6) or Long (7–9). |
In the 250 Ladders, the lengths are mixed up, so you never quite know what’s coming next. There’s also a Random button that jumps to a ladder you haven’t solved yet.
Hints and solutions
Stuck? The Hint button works in two stages. Press it once and it tells you which letter to change. Press it again and it suggests the actual word. Each press counts as a hint, so try the first one on its own before asking for the full answer.
If you’d rather just see the answer, Show solution reveals a shortest possible chain. That ladder then counts as revealed rather than solved.
When you finish, you’ll get one of three results: A perfect chain (at par with no hints), Solved at par (at par, with hints), or your number of steps. Press Copy result to share it. Each step shows as a green square if it brought you closer and a yellow one if it didn’t.
Questions people ask
Is it free?
Yes, completely. No account or sign-up needed.
Why won’t it accept my word?
The message tells you why. Usually it’s changed more than one letter, isn’t in the word list, or you’ve already used it earlier in the chain.
Is my progress saved?
Yes. The daily puzzle and all 250 ladders are saved in your browser, so you can come back to them later on the same device.
Is there only one right answer?
No. There are often several routes, and any chain of real words that reaches the goal counts. Par just tells you the shortest possible length.
Over to you
Start with today’s daily puzzle, keep an eye on that “steps to go” counter, and see if you can hit par. Open Word Ladder and start climbing. If you enjoy thinking one letter at a time, Hangman is a nice quick change of pace.
Happy climbing!