Poople Solver – Find a Shortest Word Ladder
4 moves in this practice dictionary. Each highlighted letter is the only change from the word before it.
- COLDStart
- HOLDChange letter 1
- HOODChange letter 3
- HOOPChange letter 4
- POOPChange letter 1
Look up an accepted starting word
Search the 1,028 curated words used by this solver. Choosing a word fills the starting field; select Find shortest ladder to calculate.
The solver returns one shortest route in this fixed dictionary. Other equally short routes may exist. Practice a word ladder.
A solver for this word list
Enter a starting word and a target word, each four letters long. The default target is POOP. Breadth-first search finds a route with the fewest one-letter changes in this practice dictionary.
Read the ladder as a learning aid
A short route from BOOK is BOOK → COOK → COOP → POOP. POOL → POOP takes one move. A route may first move away from the letters in POOP to reach a useful cluster of words.
Dictionary boundaries matter
This tool solves this site’s dictionary. It does not retrieve another website’s daily starting word or guarantee compatibility with another word list. If no route is found, try a different word or target.