How the Game Works

This page contains the following topics

• Objective of the game
• How to play
• Shortcuts
• Information about the words
• After finding the solution
• Starting a new game
• Statistics

Objective of the game

The objective of the game is to build a word ladder from the start word to the end word. In each step, you enter a new word, but you may only change one letter from the previous word.

For example, if the start word is HOPE, you can enter the word HOME by replacing the p with a m.

HOME is, in a way, a neighbouring word to HOPE. Some words, such as CARE, have many neighbours, while others, such as ARMY, have very few neighbours.

Some words, such as ECHO, do not have a ANY neighbours. These words can never be used in a word ladder.

How to play

Start of the game

At the beginning you will see a grid with three lines. The top line contains the start word and the last line contains the end word. In the centre is an empty line in which you can enter the second word of the word ladder.

In this case, PAST would be a good second word.

You can enter this word using the on-screen keyboard. After you have entered the word, use the Enter key () to save the word.

If you are using a computer with a keyboard, you can of course also enter the word using the keyboard.

After entering the word, a new line is automatically added to the grid. You can then enter the next word in the new line.

Unknown words

If you enter an unknown word, it will be displayed in red.

Deleting letters

Of course you can delete characters with the backspace key (). This works in the current word, but also backwards into the previous word. So don't worry about using the Enter key.

Reset

If you want to start from the beginning, click on the word ‘Reset’ under the end word.

Continuing the game

After PAST, MAST is a good word.

As you can see, the letters that match the letters in the end word are highlighted in green.

After MAST, MALT is a good word.

At this point, the words you have entered may start to scroll upwards so that you do not see the entire word ladder. You can move the list up and down as required.

Now we just have to enter the last word MALL and the game is completed.

Try out this game for yourself.

Shortcuts

In addition to using the on-screen keyboard or a real keyboard, there are some shortcuts that make playing Word Ladder easier and faster.

Use the tiles as a keys

Each letter that is already used in the word ladder can be used like a key on the keyboard. Tap or click on the letter to use it in the next word.

Jump to a position

If you touch or click on an empty tile in the current word, all empty tiles to the left of this tile are filled with letters from the previous word.

Let's assume you want to change the third letter of the previous word. If you touch or click on the third tile in the current word, the first two letters of the word will be filled with letters from the previous word.

Fill in the rest of the word

If you have already changed a letter in the current word, but have not yet entered the whole word, then the remaining letters must be copied from the previous word. After all, you can only change a single letter.

If you swipe from left to right in the current word, the remaining letters are filled with letters from the previous word.

Enter the word

Once you have entered all four letters in the current word, you can save the word by pressing the Enter key ().

Alternatively, you can also save the word by swiping across the entire word from left to right.

With the three shortcuts just described, you can enter a new word as follows:

• Click on the tile in which you want to enter the changed letter.
  The letters to the left of it are filled in automatically.
• Enter the new letter.
• Swipe from left to right to fill in the word.
• Swipe from left to right to save the word.

Clear the word

Swipe left to delete the current word.

This corresponds to using the backspace key for each letter.

Undo word input

You can also undo the entry of a word.

If the current word is empty, you can undo the word entry with the backspace key.

If the current word is empty, you can also swipe to the left to undo the word entry.

In both cases, the word entry is cancelled and the last character of the previous word is deleted.

Information about the words

Definition and grammar

A small info symbol is displayed to the right of the word.

If you touch this symbol or hold the mouse pointer over the symbol, a small pop-up window will appear.

This window shows some information about the word and contains links to online dictionaries.

Further information can be found on the Info window page.

Neighbouring words

After 40 seconds, a small "neighbours" symbol is displayed to the left of the word.

If you touch this symbol or hold the mouse pointer over the symbol, a small pop-up window will appear.

This pop-up window shows the neighbouring words in a small diagram.

If you touch or click on one of the words, a new browser tab will open containing information about the word.

This feature can make solving the word ladder much easier, but of course it could also be considered cheating.

After finding the solution

When you have finished the game, a dialogue with your solution and an optimal solution will be displayed.

This is only one optimal solution. There may be other solutions with the same length. If your solution has the same length, then congratulations!

Share

If you click on the ‘Share’ button, a simple representation of your solution is copied to the clipboard.

For example:

Daily Game July 13, 2025
YEAR ➔ POOP
⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩
https://en.wortleiter.de/

You can include this in a message to a friend or post it on social media.

Starting a new game

The daily game

There is a new game every day.

The status of the daily game is indicated by an icon at the top left of the screen.

Symbol	Meaning
	The daily game is available. Click on this symbol to start the game.
	You are playing the daily game.
	You have completed the daily game.

When you have completed the daily game, a dialogue with your current streak will be displayed.

This is shown with three numbers:

• The total number of daily games you have solved.
• The number of games you have solved in an uninterrupted streak, including today's game.
• Your longest uninterrupted streak to date.

Note: You can call up this dialogue again later via a link in the sidebar.

Practice games

Apart from the daily game, you can start a new game at any time by clicking on the icon at the top right of the screen.

There are three levels, which are indicated by the symbol.

Symbol	Difficulty level
	Easy
	Medium
	Difficult

If you touch or click on the left part of the symbol, you can select the level from a menu.

If you have a mouse, the menu appears when you move the mouse over the icon.

If you click on the right-hand side of the symbol, a new game is started on the current level.

Statistics

You can use a command on the sidebar to view statistics about the word ladders you’ve solved.

Click on the sidebar-icon in the top left-hand corner of the screen and then on the statistics option in the sidebar.

This will open a dialogue with a diagram showing the games and word ladders you have solved.

The scale on the left side of the chart shows how many steps you took beyond the number in an optimal solution.

In the screenshot above, for example, you can see that the word ladder from YEAR to POOP has an optimal solution in 5 steps, but the player actually needed 7 steps. That was 2 steps more than an optimal solution.

The diagram above shows that the player has solved 7 word ladders with the optimal length and 2 word ladders with one step more than the optimal length.

This continues until the last bar, which indicates that the player has taken more than 10 steps above the optimum solution in a game.

The different colours indicate the level of the game.

Note: If you touch the bar (hold the mouse over it), further details are displayed.