Famous Word Ladder Examples
Twenty word ladders, each one written out in full and checked against the English list Word Labyrinth actually plays with. Where a shorter route exists through rarer words I say so, and where a famous pair simply can't be done I say that too. Most of these have more than one shortest path, so if yours differs it isn't wrong. All twenty use Carroll's original rule, swap one letter and never add one, which is also how our Pure Swap weekly challenge works; the daily ladder additionally lets a step add a letter, so some pairs that are impossible here are playable there.
Three-letter ladders
1. CAT → DOG (3 steps)
CAT → COT → COG → DOG
The one everybody knows. CAT → COT → DOT → DOG works just as well; three-letter words have so many neighbours (CAT alone has 27 in our list) that there are usually several ways through.
2. APE → MAN (5 steps)
APE → APT → OPT → OAT → MAT → MAN
Lewis Carroll set APE and MAN as a pair in 1879, twenty years after The Origin of Species, and the joke was not subtle. The route above is mine, not his. The OPT/OAT turn in the middle is the kind of thing you only find by trying vowels.
3. PEN → INK (5 steps)
PEN → TEN → TON → ION → INN → INK
This is the one people write off as impossible. INK has exactly three neighbours (ILK, INN, IRK), so you have to arrive through INN, and INN is only reachable from ION. Once you see that, the rest is just getting to ION. PEN → PAN → PAD, by comparison, is a two-step warm-up.
4. SUN → MOON (not a swap ladder)
Three letters to four. Under swap-only rules the length never changes, so this pair is out before you start. (In the Word Labyrinth daily ladder a step may add a letter, which is exactly the rule that makes a pair like this settable.) The swap-only version worth playing is SUN → RAY, and it's only three: SUN → RUN → RAN → RAY.
Four-letter ladders
5. COLD → WARM (4 steps)
COLD → CORD → WORD → WARD → WARM
The textbook example, and still the best one for teaching. Every rung is a word a child knows and every change lands a letter in its final place.
6. HEAD → TAIL (5 steps)
HEAD → HEAL → TEAL → TELL → TALL → TAIL
Carroll's own chain, exactly as he printed it in the preface to Doublets. TEAL is the rung that stops people; it's a duck.
7. FISH → BIRD (6 steps)
FISH → WISH → WISE → WINE → WIND → BIND → BIRD
Six with everyday words. There's a five-step route if you know GIRT: FISH → FIST → GIST → GIRT → GIRD → BIRD. I'd take the six. A chain you can explain to someone beats a chain you have to defend.
8. POOR → RICH (6 steps)
POOR → BOOR → BOOK → ROOK → ROCK → RICK → RICH
Six, not five, however often you see it quoted as five. BOOR is the word nobody reaches for, and it's the only way into the double-O run that carries you across.
9. LEAD → GOLD (3 steps)
LEAD → LOAD → GOAD → GOLD
Alchemy in three. GOAD does all the work. EAST → WEST is also three (PAST, PEST), which surprises people who assume opposites must be far apart.
10. SHIP → DOCK (6 steps)
SHIP → SLIP → SLAP → SOAP → SOAK → SOCK → DOCK
Six, with nothing you'd blush at. The last three rungs (SOAK → SOCK → DOCK) are the easy part; the trick is realising you have to go through SLAP and SOAP to get the O into the middle.
11. HATE → LOVE (4 steps)
HATE → LATE → LANE → LONE → LOVE
Four with common words. Nabokov's Pale Fire has a character do it in three, and that works too if your dictionary admits LAVE (to wash): HATE → LATE → LAVE → LOVE.
Five-letter ladders
12. FLOUR → BREAD (6 steps)
FLOUR → FLOOR → FLOOD → BLOOD → BROOD → BROAD → BREAD
A classic, and the first five-letter ladder most people learn. FLOOR → FLOOD → BLOOD is the double-O bridge; BROOD is the rung that makes it feel clever.
13. BLACK → WHITE (8 steps)
BLACK → SLACK → SLICK → SLICE → SPICE → SPINE → SHINE → WHINE → WHITE
Eight with words you use. The famous seven-step version goes through CHINE, an animal's backbone, which is a butcher's word rather than a player's; eight with ordinary words is the honest count. Every letter changes at least once here, because BLACK and WHITE share nothing.
14. SLEEP → DREAM (6 steps)
SLEEP → BLEEP → BLEED → BREED → BREAD → DREAD → DREAM
My favourite five-letter chain. The double E carries you to BREED, then BREAD → DREAD → DREAM is one letter at a time down the front of the word.
15. NIGHT → LIGHT (1 step)
NIGHT → LIGHT
A single change. I include it because beginners sometimes think a ladder has to be long. It doesn't; it has to be exact.
16. EARTH → SPACE (don't bother)
In our list EARTH has exactly one neighbour, BARTH, and from there the only way on is nine rungs of words you've never typed. We would never set this pair. Every puzzle we publish is pre-solved before anyone sees it, and a nine-rung path through BARTH is not a puzzle anyone wants.
17. TRAIN → PLANE (7 steps)
TRAIN → BRAIN → BRAID → BRAND → BLAND → BLANK → PLANK → PLANE
Seven, and I can't find shorter with ordinary words. It's a good one for practising the habit of working from both ends: PLANK → PLANE is obvious from the target, BRAIN → BRAID is obvious from the start, and the job is to join them.
Six-letter ladders
18. DINNER → WINTER (3 steps)
DINNER → SINNER → WINNER → WINTER
Six-letter ladders are rarely this kind. The -INNER family is one of the few six-letter clusters where you can move freely. JACKET → LOCKER is another friendly one: JACKET → PACKET → POCKET → LOCKET → LOCKER.
19. ORANGE → APPLES (impossible)
ORANGE has one everyday neighbour, GRANGE. APPLES has one, APPLET. Neither leads anywhere. This is what six-letter words are mostly like: in our list the typical common six-letter word has two neighbours, and a fifth of them have none at all.
20. WINTER → SUMMER (16 steps)
WINTER → WINDER → FINDER → FENDER → FEEDER → WEEDER → WEEPER → PEEPER → PEPPER → POPPER → TOPPER → TAPPER → TAMPER → HAMPER → HAMMER → HUMMER → SUMMER
The long one. Sixteen rungs is the shortest I can make it without leaving everyday English. With a bigger dictionary it drops to seven (WISTER, LISTER, LISPER, LIMPER, SIMPER, SIMMER), which tells you more about dictionaries than about the puzzle.
A note on dictionaries
Every count above depends on which words you allow. Carroll's readers argued about this in 1879 and we still get emails about it. Our list leans towards words people actually use, which is why I've given the common-word route first and the rare-word shortcut second. If a chain won't resolve in your puzzle, the missing rung is usually a word the dictionary doesn't take, not a mistake in your plan.
Try them in Word Labyrinth
Pairs like these turn up in the daily ladder (five puzzles, three to six letters, graded against the shortest path), and Expert mode serves nothing under eight steps if the long ones are what you're after. If you find a shorter route than one of mine, with ordinary words, I want to hear about it.
Solve a fresh ladder
5 daily puzzles. Free. Plus unlimited Expert mode for after.
Play Word Labyrinth