Word Ladder
One word is turned into another by changing a single letter at a time, and every word along the way has to be a real one.
Players1+
CategoriesPaper-and-pencil games
ObjectiveWrite down more words differing from the starting word by one letter than anybody else.
Rules of "who finds more"
What differs here
There is no target: there is one starting word, and as many of its neighbours as you can find.
The round
One word is named. Each player writes down words of the same length differing from it by exactly one letter.
Scoring
When the time is up or everybody has run dry, the lists are read aloud. Each valid word is a point.
Whoever has the most wins.
Worth knowing
A time limit for the round is not usually agreed, nor whether a word two players wrote still counts: either works, and it is worth settling before the start.
Glossary of terms
- A rung
- An intermediate word of the ladder. It has to be a real word, not a string of letters on the way to the target.
- A step
- The move from one word to the next. Exactly one letter changes, and the length of the word stays the same.