Word Ladder - Rules

Rules

The player is given a start word and an end word. In order to win the game, the player must change the start word into the end word progressively, creating an existing word at each step. Each step consists of a single letter substitution. For example, the following are solutions to the word ladder puzzle between words "cold" and "warm".

COLD → CORD → CARD → WARD → WARM

COLD → CORD → CORMWORM → WARM

COLD → WOLD → WORD → WARD → WARM

Often word ladder puzzles are created where the end word has some kind of relationship with the start word (synonymous, antonymous, semantic...). This was also the way the game was originally devised by Lewis Carroll when it first appeared in Vanity Fair.

Variations

Some variations also allow the following changes at each step:

  • Adding a letter
  • Removing a letter
  • Use the same letters in different order (an anagram).

Read more about this topic:  Word Ladder

Famous quotes containing the word rules:

    It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    Now that the steam engine rules the world, a title is an absurdity, still I am all dressed up in this title. It will crush me if I do not support it. The title attracts attention to myself.
    Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)

    The five kings count the dead but do not soften
    The crusted wound nor stroke the brow;
    A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
    Hands have no tears to flow.
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)