dankpuzzles

change one letter at a time to reach the target

Rungwise Daily word ladder #…

How to play the word ladder

  1. One letter per move. Tap a letter of your word to pick it (it lifts), then tap a new letter on the keyboard. The new word must be a real word.
  2. Reach the target. Example, BOAT to COOK: BOAT → BOOT → BOOK → COOK, three moves. A letter that already matches the target turns green.
  3. Beat par. Par is the fewest moves using common words. Undo is free; a hint shows the next letter but caps the day at two stars.
Start
Target

Moves: 0 · par –More ladders →

    Loading today’s ladder…

    Keyboard: ← → pick a letter, type a letter to change it, Backspace undoes.

    Your ladders

    Played
    0
    Solved
    0
    Streak
    0
    All-done days
    0
    Best streak
    0

    Stars on the day: ★★★ 0 · ★★ 0 · ★ 0

    The streak counts ladders solved on their own day, one after another. Playing a past ladder never changes it.

    Past ladders

    Missed a day? Every earlier ladder, newest first; tap one to play it here with its own saved progress. Past ladders keep their stars but never change today’s streak.

      Rungwise is the dankpuzzles word ladder: a start word and a target of the same length, one letter changed per move, a real word at every step. A new ladder every midnight UTC, the same for everyone. Monday to Thursday the ladders are short (par 4 or 5), Friday and Saturday longer (par 6 or 7), and Sunday uses five-letter words (par 6 to 9).

      Par is the fewest moves through common or everyday words, worked out by a solver when the puzzle was made. Any word in the site’s word list counts as a step, so a rare word can give a shortcut under par. Crude words are never accepted. Stars: ★★★ at par or under, ★★ one or two moves over, ★ for any finish. Your progress stays in this browser only.

      More ladders are practice: as many as you like, drawn in your browser by the same rules as the daily (start, target and par route from common words; no shorter route through everyday words). Four letters short is par 4 or 5, long par 6 or 7; five letters short is par 6 or 7, long par 8 or 9. They never repeat a daily ladder or one of your last 50 practice ladders, and they never touch your streak.

      Make a word ladder for a friend or a class: pick two words, see if they connect and in how many steps, then send the link or print a worksheet with the answer on page 2.

      Want a different kind of puzzle? Today’s Typeslide is a sliding grid of letter tiles, and the levels take it further, world by world. Stuck on another word game? The word lists and anagram finder are free too.

      We count visits and plays anonymously. No cookies, no personal data.

      What we count

      Each visit adds one to a count for the page’s address, nothing more. The word ladder adds seven tallies, and today’s puzzles two more, each a fixed name with no puzzle number, no cookie and nothing about you or your words. A tally goes up by one when:

      • ladder-start you play your first word on today’s ladder (once a day per browser)
      • ladder-solve you reach today’s target (once a day per browser)
      • ladder-share you tap Share result on today’s ladder
      • ladder-arrive you open the page from a shared result’s link (the ?s on the end; once per visit)
      • ladder-archive-solve you solve a past ladder (once per past ladder per browser)
      • ladder-quick-solve you solve a practice ladder from More ladders (once per practice ladder)
      • ladder-make-arrive you open a ladder a friend made for you with the ladder maker (once per ladder per browser)
      • set-done you finish the last of today’s puzzles: Typeslide, word ladder, nonogram, from 23 October 2026 the Quoin box puzzle and from 24 October 2026 the Ligature bridges puzzle and the Lampblack lamps puzzle (once a day per browser)
      • reminder-add you tap Remind me every day and the calendar file is made (the time you picked is not sent)

      How to play the word ladder

      A word ladder joins two words of the same length. You climb from the start word to the target one rung at a time, and each rung changes exactly one letter. Rungwise is this site’s daily ladder: everyone gets the same one, and a new ladder starts at midnight UTC.

      The rules

      1. Change one letter per move. Tap a letter of your word to pick it, then tap a key for the new letter. On a computer, use the arrow keys and type.
      2. Letters stay in place. You never add, remove or swap letters, so COLD to CLOD is two changes, not one.
      3. Every step must be a real word. Any word in the site’s word list counts, rare ones too. Crude words are never accepted.
      4. Reach the target in as few moves as you can. Par is the fewest moves through common and everyday words. Three stars at par or under, two for one or two moves over, one for any finish.
      5. Undo is free. Hint shows the next step of a shortest route from where you are now, even after a detour, but it caps the day at two stars.

      Worked example: COLD to WARM

      All four letters have to change, so the ladder takes at least 4 moves. The question is which letter goes first. Change the C and you get WOLD, a word most people never use; the O makes CALD and the D makes COLM, and neither is a word. Only the L leads on through common words:

      1. start
      2. L → R
      3. C → W
      4. O → A
      5. D → M: target, 4 moves = par

      Green letters already match the target; the underline marks the letter just changed. From CORD, CARD → WARD → WARM is just as short. The step that unlocks a ladder is often the letter that looks least important.

      Where the words come from

      The word list is ENABLE, a public-domain list made for word games: 3,887 four-letter and 8,614 five-letter words after slurs are taken out. ENABLE does not say which words are common, so each word is graded by SCOWL (Kevin Atkinson’s spell-checker lists, sizes 10 to 95): common if it is in a small everyday dictionary (size 35 or under), everyday at sizes 40 to 50, less common at 55 to 70, rare above that. The start, the target and the par route of a daily ladder use only common words, and par is checked so that knowing everyday words never makes it shorter.

      Frequency alone lets odd words in: AYES, GEED (from “gee”), CODS and WIST all count as common to SCOWL. So every word the year’s calendar used was read with one question, “would an ordinary adult write this?”, and 115 that failed went on an avoid list. From 21 October 2026 no avoided word is a start, a target or on a par route. They still count if you type them, and so does any rare word: a rare word can even take you under par. Honest limit: ENABLE is an American word-game list, so names, places and a few plain-looking words are not in it.

      Made with AI tools.