Practice Word Ladders
Untimed, unranked · 3 free ladders a day as a guest
Warm up with a random puzzle. No clock pressure, no leaderboard, just ladders.
Guests get 3 practice ladders a day. Join free or sign in for unlimited practice.
How to play
- Start at the top word, finish at the bottom word.
- Each move changes exactly one letter and must make a real English word.
- Type the whole next word - the fifth letter submits it automatically. Wrong word? It shakes; just Backspace and fix it.
- Par is the best route using common words only, so you can always get there with vocabulary you know. Shortest is the shortest possible route once obscure words are allowed - we'll show you both at the end.
- Every ladder also has a par time based on its difficulty: finish inside it and you've beaten the clock.
Example: STONE → STOKE → SMOKE → SMOTE → SMITE
Solved!
Change one letter to make a new word.
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Practising word ladders
Practice mode is the same game as the daily puzzle with the pressure taken off: no clock, no leaderboard, and as many ladders as you want. Nothing you do here affects your streak or your ranking, so it is the place to try a route you are not sure about.
Pick a difficulty and we will draw a ladder to match. Gentle ladders are short and take a fairly direct route. Standard is the range most daily puzzles fall into. Tricky ladders are longer, take at least one detour that looks wrong until it works, and lean on less obvious vocabulary. Or choose Surprise me and take what comes.
Every practice ladder still has a par (the shortest route through everyday words) and a par time scaled to how awkward that route is, so you can measure yourself without anyone else watching. Hard mode works here too: no undo, no hints, par or bust, on a strict five-minute clock.
You can also replay any puzzle from the archive, which is the best way to see how you would have done on a day you missed, and a good way to study a ladder you gave up on. If you are new to the game, start with the guided tutorial; if you want to know where any of this comes from, what a word ladder is covers the history and the strategy.