Word Ladder

Word Ladder is a puzzle in which there 6 rows, each able to take a 4-letter word, where the words at the top and the bottom are presented, but the words in the middle four rows are hidden. To solve the puzzle, you need to find 4 intermediate 4-letter words such that each word differs from the one above and below by one letter only.

So, given the following word ladder:

SUNK

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----

----

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MASH

one solution would be:

SUNK

BUNK

BANK

BASK

BASH

MASH

You will find that you will have to introduce an additional letter into one, and only one, of the four positions that does not appear in this position in the top or bottom words. So, in the example solution above, the letter B is introduced into the first position.

All word ladders are generated from an internal dictionary, with care being taken to ensure that there isn't a solution that requires only three intermediate words.

This app is child-safe as vulgar words are not in the dictionary used for generation. However, there is a second dictionary is used for checking that contains such words, and also other rare or otherwise contentious words, so that the words used in your solution containing these should not be rejected.

You can check your solution and also see the system's solution.

A hint facility shows you the additional letter that must be introduced to achieve the system solution.

This app should last you a lifetime, as there are over 2500 words in the dictionaries. Testing demonstrated that at least 100,000 word ladders with different top-bottom word pairs are available.

The program state is remembered when you exit the app, so that you can continue where you left off.

No internet connection is required, so the app can be used anywhere, even on a plane, train or car where no internet connection is available.

The app is also available from i.compactfun.com if you cannot download from the Play Store. A web-based version that can be played on most browsers is also there.