Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

word ladder

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.00 in modern English

Syllables: word lad-der
IPA

16

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A kind of puzzle in which one word must be transformed into another specified word of the same length by changing one letter at a time, each step yielding a valid intermediate word, as in lead → load → goad → gold.

noun

A type of cryptic crossword clue in which the each word in the clue defines a single term each varying by a single letter, and all the terms together form a word ladder between the first half of the solution and the second half.

Example Sentences

"But his real genius lay in the devising of many entirely new types of crossword, some of which have found enthusiastic imitators . 'Printer's Devilry', 'Playfair', and 'Word-Ladder' , for instance, were his invention"
"In the word ladder each rung is a six-letter word which has five letters in common with each of its neighbours (e.g. DISTIL, LISTED, STRIDE, EDITOR, etc). The rungs to be entered in the diagram are not clued but must be deduced from the other rungs which are"
"Some of Morph's politically themed crosswords stick out: the puzzle where BLAIR changed to BROWN word-ladder-style in the grid via BLAIN/BRAIN/BRAWN and the one featuring various items claimed on expenses by MPs: DUCK ISLAND and so on."

Inflected Forms

word ladders (plural)

Phrases

word golf

Frequently Paired Words

word golf

Synonyms

doublet laddergram

Questions

What does word ladder mean?: A kind of puzzle in which one word must be transformed into another specified word of the same length by changing one letter at a time, each step yielding a valid intermediate word, as in lead → load → goad → gold.

How to pronounce word ladder

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “word ladder”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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Repeat and practice — Say “word ladder” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.