Word ladder puzzles: how to solve them, with hints and answers

Change one position and keep a real word

To solve a word ladder, connect a starting word to a target by changing exactly one letter at each step. Keep the word length and the other letters’ positions unchanged. Every intermediate result must also be a word. A useful way to begin is to list possible next words from each end and look for a connection.

Those basic rules appear in Kyle Corbin’s Minimal Word Ladders, published in Word Ways in 1988. This lesson uses the one-letter substitution version; it does not allow adding letters, deleting them or rearranging the word.

Start with the worked route below, then try three puzzles written for this article. You need only paper and a pen. The supplied solutions are valid examples, not a claim that each puzzle has only one answer.

Set the word rules before you start

For these exercises, use ordinary English words, including inflected forms such as the past tense SANK. Exclude proper names and abbreviations. Keep every step four letters long and use a dictionary to settle unfamiliar words. Merriam-Webster lists SANK as the past tense of SINK.

A word can be valid English without appearing in a particular game’s accepted list. These are paper exercises with the rules above, rather than answers guaranteed to work in a named app.

Count a move whenever you change one word into the next. Five words in a completed chain therefore represent four moves. If you find another route, check every transition before comparing its length with the examples.

Worked example: take MIND to COST

Write MIND above COST, lining up their four positions. MINT is one legal first step: only the final letter changes. From MINT, try MIST; from MIST, try MOST. MOST is then one change away from COST.

Read the route slowly and name the position you changed each time. This turns a plausible-looking chain into something you can verify.

Work from both ends when the next move is unclear

Instead of trying to guess the whole chain, write a few valid neighbors of the current word. Test one position at a time and keep the other three fixed. A candidate is useful only if it is a word and changes exactly one position.

You can do the same from the target. In the worked example, COST can become MOST. Working forward gives MIND → MINT → MIST; working backward gives COST → MOST. MIST and MOST differ only in position 2, so those two partial routes join.

Reverse the target-side route when you write the final answer: MIND → MINT → MIST → MOST → COST. A one-letter substitution works in either direction, but accidentally writing the two branches in their discovery order can create a broken step.

If a branch stalls, return to an earlier word and try another neighbor. Do not assume that matching a target letter locks that position forever; the basic substitution rule allows a position to change again later. Keep your attempted branches on paper so you do not repeatedly explore the same route.

Try these three word ladders

Find a route for each start-and-target pair below. There is no timer or required move count. Write one word per line, check its spelling and mark the changed position before adding the next line.

The optional hints give you one intermediate word by meaning. You can ignore them and use another valid route. Stop here if you want to solve before seeing the hints and answers.

1. SAND → … → SILK
2. BELL → … → BOAT
3. FIVE → … → CART

Optional hints: find a useful stepping stone

For SAND to SILK, one route passes through the past tense of SINK. That word is a single change away from SAND.

For BELL to BOAT, try an item worn around the waist. From there, look for a word meaning to strike or defeat before reaching the target.

For FIVE to CART, one route uses the word for a passenger’s travel charge. It is spelled differently from FAIR; the dictionary entry for FARE explains that meaning.

Answers: check the changed position at every step

1. SAND → SANK → SINK → SILK. Change position 4 from D to K, position 2 from A to I, then position 3 from N to L. That is three moves. SANK is the past tense; SINK can be the present-tense verb or the basin.

2. BELL → BELT → BEAT → BOAT. Change position 4 from L to T, position 3 from L to A, then position 2 from E to O. That is three moves. BELL contains two Ls, but the first move replaces only the final one.

3. FIVE → FIRE → FARE → CARE → CART. Change position 3 from V to R, position 2 from I to A, position 1 from F to C, then position 4 from E to T. That is four moves.

Accept a different chain if every word meets the agreed word rules and every neighboring pair differs in exactly one position. These solutions demonstrate valid paths; no dictionary-wide shortest-route or uniqueness claim is needed to check them.

Four mistakes a quick position check catches

MIND → MIST changes two positions: N becomes S and D becomes T. Both words are real, but you need an intermediate step such as MINT.

MIND → MINDS adds a letter, so it breaks this version’s fixed-length rule. Some other word-puzzle formats permit additions; this exercise does not.

COST → COTS rearranges the same letters, but positions 3 and 4 both change. It is an anagram operation, not one ladder move. Our anagram examples explain that different letter rule.

SAND → SAND changes nothing. Copying a word does not advance the ladder: a legal move changes exactly one position, rather than zero or two.

If you enjoy letter positions, try a deduction puzzle next

A ladder gives you the destination and asks you to find a route. Scramdle Grid gives you a hidden answer and asks you to discover it from the feedback on your guesses. The shared interest is reasoning about letters and positions, while the goal and move rules differ.

Grid Classic uses a five-letter answer and gives you six guesses, with no countdown. Green marks a correctly placed letter, gold marks an available copy elsewhere in the answer, and gray means no unmatched copy remains for that tile. You do not have to change exactly one letter between guesses.

Scramdle does not provide a word-ladder mode. Choose Grid when you want to try hidden-word deduction after the paper routes above; keep a dedicated ladder puzzle when finding a chain is the part you want more of.