🪜 Word Ladder

How to play Word Ladder

Word Ladder is a classic word-transformation puzzle. Each round gives you a start word and a target word — your job is to morph one into the other, one rung at a time. Every rung must differ from the previous word by exactly one letter and must be a real English word from the game's word list. For example, to climb from COLD to WARM you might go COLD → CORD → WORD → WARD → WARM. Reach the target and the round ends.

Controls

• On-screen keyboard: tap letters to fill the current rung, ⌫ to delete, ⏎ to submit — built for mobile and tablet.
• Physical keyboard: type A–Z letters, Backspace to delete, Enter to submit the word.
• Hint: reveals the next rung of the shortest known ladder — costs 100 points per hint.

Tips & strategy

• Change one letter at a time and read the pair aloud — if it sounds wrong, it probably isn't a word.
• Consonants are the pivots: swapping the first letter of a word usually finds a valid rung faster than fiddling with vowels.
• Don't reuse words — every rung must be new, so backtracking wastes moves and points.
• A hint shows the next step of the shortest path, but the shortest path isn't always the easiest to spot — use it early when stuck, not late when the round is nearly solved.
• Each submitted rung costs 25 points, so a clean 4-rung ladder scores far more than a wandering 9-rung one.

Scoring

Every round starts with 500 points in the pot. Each submitted rung costs 25 points and each hint costs 100 points; whatever is left when you reach the target is added to your total. Five rounds per game, and your best total is saved in this browser.