What is it?
Word Ladder asks you to turn one word into another by changing exactly one letter at a time, making a real word at every step: COLD → CORD → CARD → WARD → WARM. Play today’s ladder (the same for everyone), make unlimited practice ladders with 3 or 4 letters, or type any two words to see the shortest ladder.
Who is it for?
Word game fans, children building vocabulary and spelling, English learners, and teachers looking for a quick class puzzle.
How to use it
- Press Today’s ladder, or choose 3 letters or 4 letters and press New practice ladder.
- The start word is at the top and the goal is green. Type a word that changes one letter of the last word and press Add word (or Enter).
- Keep going until you reach the goal. Undo removes your last word; Hint adds the next word on a shortest route; Show answer shows one.
- Under Make your own ladder or solve one, type a start word and an end word, then Play it or Solve it.
Tips
- Change vowels first: they open up many more words (CAT → COT → CUT).
- Work backwards too: which words are one step away from the goal?
- The solver searches step by step outwards, so the ladder it shows is always as short as possible.
Errors and how to fix them
- “Type a 4-letter word.”: your word has the wrong length.
- “Change exactly one letter of CORD.”: you changed two letters or moved letters around.
- “XYZ is not in our word list. Try a more common word.”: the list keeps to common words; rare words, names and abbreviations are out.
- “You have already used CARD.”: a word can appear only once.
- “There is no way from … to … Use Undo.”: you reached a dead end; undo a step.
- “Use two words of the same length: 3 or 4 letters.” / “No ladder links …”: for your own ladder, choose another pair.
Open the tool: Word Ladder
Still stuck?
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Questions, or an error not listed here?
Tell us in the comments: what you were doing, the exact message you saw, and your device and browser. We read every comment and add new fixes to this article.