Word Ladder
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Sharpening pencils & preparing word clues!
Word Ladder is a transformation puzzle invented by Lewis Carroll: turn the starting word into the target word by changing exactly one letter at a time, with every step being a real English word. CAT becomes DOG only through legal rungs — CAT, COT, COG, DOG. There is no timer and no luck; the pleasure is in finding the elegant short path rather than a long wandering one.
MÉ-MO deals a daily ladder plus two board sizes — quick 3-letter ladders and roomier 4-letter ones — and scores you against par, the puzzle's expected number of steps. Finish at or under par and you earn the star treatment; wander and the ladder still counts, just less glamorously. A hint is there when a rung refuses to appear, because the game teaches you to see word neighbourhoods: after a few weeks, you notice one-letter bridges everywhere.
Par is the benchmark number of steps for that puzzle, like par in golf. Finishing in par or fewer earns the best star rating; finishing in more still solves the ladder, and chasing par is what turns a finished puzzle into a mastered one.
No. Every rung must be a real English word from the game's word list — that constraint is the puzzle. If a rung is rejected, it is either not a recognised word or it changed more than one letter from the previous rung.
Three-letter ladders are short sprints with few possible rungs — great for learning the idea. Four-letter ladders have a much larger word neighbourhood, so they allow more routes, more detours and more satisfying shortcuts.