Word Ladder
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#675 · Medium

Change one letter at a time to turn "QUOTA" into "SLIDE". Every rung must be a real word.

Q
U
O
T
A
S
L
I
D
E

Stuck? Get a hint for today's ladder →

Play Word Ladder online, a new puzzle every day

Word Ladder is a free daily word puzzle. You get a start word and a target word, and you climb from one to the other by changing a single letter at a time. Every step has to be a real word, and the fewer steps you take, the better.

There are three daily ladders: Easy uses four-letter words, Medium five and Hard six. Everyone plays the same puzzles each day, and every ladder has a known shortest solution, so when you finish you can see how close you came to the optimal number of moves.

How to play

  1. Look at the start word and the target word.
  2. Type a word that changes exactly one letter of the word above it. You can't add, remove or reorder letters.
  3. Keep climbing until you reach the target word. Hit a dead end? Press ⌫ on an empty row to bring back your last word and try another path.

Tips for shorter ladders

Keep the letters you already share

Compare the two words first. Letters that already match the target in the same position never need to change, so put your moves into the ones that do.

Swap a vowel to open new paths

When you run out of options, change a vowel. BAT, BET, BIT and BUT are all one step apart, and each opens a different family of words.

Work backwards from the target

Think of words that are one letter away from the target. Reach any of them and you're one step from the finish.