A daily word ladder
Get from the start word to the goal word, changing one letter at a time. Every rung in between has to be a real word. Fewer rungs is better.
How it works
- Read the start word at the top and the goal word at the bottom.
- Type a word in the highlighted rung. It must change exactly one letter from the word above it.
- Keep going until you reach the goal. The puzzle tells you the par — the shortest ladder that exists.
Every puzzle is checked by a dictionary, so nonsense gets rejected and real words get accepted. There is one puzzle a day, the same one for everybody, and it resets at midnight your time.
Questions
What is a word ladder?
A word ladder (sometimes called a doublet) is a chain of words where each step changes exactly one letter. Lewis Carroll invented it in the 1870s — his original puzzle turned APE into MAN. Rung a Day is that idea, one puzzle a day.
What does “par” mean?
Par is the length of the shortest possible ladder, found by searching the whole dictionary. You do not have to match it — any valid ladder wins. Matching par is a good day, and beating it means you found a route the computer did not.
Why was my word rejected?
Two reasons, usually. Either it is not in the word list (we use a curated list of common four-letter English words, so very obscure or dialect words may be missing), or it changes more than one letter from the rung above. Words that are one letter away but unfamiliar are the most common surprise.
Can I play old puzzles?
Yes — the archive has every puzzle so far. Archive games do not count toward your streak.
Is it free? Do I need an account?
Free, no account, no download. Your streak and stats live in your browser’s local storage, so clearing site data will reset them.