Play Poople
FOUR LETTERS, ONE CHANGE

What is a word ladder?

Turn one word into another, changing a single letter at each step.

A word ladder is a route through words. Choose a starting word and a target, then join them with a sequence of accepted words of the same length.

The three rules

  • Keep all four letter positions. Each move replaces exactly one letter.
  • Use a word from the accepted list at every step, including both endpoints.
  • Reach the target. If you are comparing solutions, the route with fewer transformations is shorter.

Swapping two letters is not a single move. Adding a letter, deleting a letter, and using a made-up intermediate word are not allowed. Two valid words can still be an invalid pair of consecutive steps if more than one position differs.

A complete example

In the checked list, COLD reaches WARM in 4 moves:

  1. StartCOLDThe starting word; no move used
  2. Move 1CORDReplace L with R in position 3
  3. Move 2CARDReplace O with A in position 2
  4. Move 3WARDReplace C with W in position 1
  5. Move 4WARMReplace D with M in position 4

The list contains 5 words because the starting position is not a move. Each line after it changes one letter in the same position.

How to find your next word

Hold three positions fixed and try changing the remaining position. Work through all four positions so you do not keep revisiting the same few ideas. A useful move does not have to look more like the target immediately: its value may be the words you can reach after it.

You can also work backward. A one-letter connection is valid in either direction, so list words that could immediately precede the target and try to connect your forward route to one of them.

What “shortest” means

A shortest route uses the fewest legal transformations in a particular accepted word list. Our solver searches every word one move away, then two moves away, and continues in distance order. That breadth-first search establishes a minimum because each step costs exactly one move.

There may be several routes with the same minimum length. Different word lists may also give different answers. A result here uses our checked four-letter list; it is not a claim about every English dictionary or every other game.

Word ladders and Poople

Poople uses this format with a daily starting word and POOP as the destination. A general word ladder can use a different destination. Get Poople is an independent companion, and our practice games do not change your official game scores or streak.

Solve any two accepted four-letter words, play a word ladder, or get the latest Poople hints.