Poople Solver & Word Ladder Solver

Word ladder solver: find the shortest route

Enter a start and target word of four letters each. The solver checks accepted words and changes one position per move. Leave POOP as the target for Poople-style practice, or choose another accepted four-letter goal.

You can start from the word where you are currently stuck. You do not have to restart the original puzzle. The first result shows only the minimum move count. Choose One letter, Next word or Full route when you are ready. Continue from a revealed word to ask for another nudge; each new search hides the route again. If a game rejects a suggested bridge, open Word rejected by your game? and add that word to the skip list. The solver recomputes the minimum with your exclusions; it does not change the game’s rules or guarantee compatibility. For the dated puzzle, visit the Poople answer today page.

Worked word ladder examples

These examples are calculated when this version of the site is built. They use the same dictionary as the tool above, so the listed distances can be checked directly.

Each arrow represents one accepted move. Alternate routes can tie with these examples; the first displayed route does not have to be the only solution.

How shortest paths and detours are checked

The solver explores words one move away, then two moves away, and continues in order. This breadth-first search reaches the target at the first possible distance in the supplied word list.

A useful route check compares how far each word remains from the goal. A move that reduces that distance by one keeps you on a shortest continuation. If the distance stays the same, that move adds one step; if the distance increases by one, it adds two. This explains a detour without treating every valid longer solution as a mistake.

Invalid words or moves stop the check at that point. There is no reliable distance for a word outside the list. You can correct the route or continue from its last valid word.

Solver questions and limitations

This site accepts 2,347 four-letter words and offers 1,500 practice starts. The dictionary version is scowl-2020.12.07-practice-84c372d0e87a. Every displayed move is checked against that version. These practice rounds use the same versioned word list throughout.

Different games accept different words. A route that works here may be rejected elsewhere. A word outside this list is not automatically incorrect English. Read the word-list sources and limits, or report a questionable word or route.

Method, word-list information and examples checked October 29, 2026. This is a content review date, not an official daily-puzzle update.

Practice another word ladder · Read the rules · Poople archive

Two worked examples: lower bound and detour

Why COLD → WARM needs at least four moves. All four positions differ, and one move changes one position, so fewer than four moves cannot reach WARM. In our word list the route COLD → WOLD → WORD → WARD → WARM reaches it in four moves, so four is both a lower bound and an achievable result.

Why a valid route can take one step longer. COOK → COOP → POOP is a shortest two-move route in our word list. COOK → COOL → POOL → POOP is also valid, but takes three moves: after COOK → COOL, two more changes are still needed. A longer valid route is not an invalid solution.

These examples use the dictionary version shown on this page. Recheck them with the tool above; the worked-example table is generated from the same word list.

Why a word or step is rejected

Four different questions are often mixed together: does the word exist in the game’s dictionary, does the move change exactly one position, does the route stay inside the selected word list, and does another game accept the same words. This table separates them.

Choose familiar bridges or the full dictionary

The familiar-word option restricts the intermediate words to a curated subset of 1,576 entries. Your two endpoints remain available when they belong to the main dictionary, even if an endpoint is outside that subset. This lets you solve between the words you entered while asking for more recognizable bridges in between.

Familiarity is a practical editorial choice. It is not a measured frequency rank, a reading-level certificate or a promise that every player knows every word. A word can be ordinary in one context and unfamiliar in another. Use the route as a starting point for checking vocabulary rather than assuming that a familiar label supplies a definition.

Restricting the available bridges can make a route longer or remove every connection. When the full dictionary has a solution but the familiar subset does not, the result explains the difference and lets you try again without that restriction. The absence of a familiar route does not invalidate the unrestricted route.

Compare the labels beside the result. “Shortest with familiar bridge words” and “shortest in our word list” refer to different searches. If the shorter route uses a word you do not want to play, the longer familiar option may be more useful for your purpose.

Prepare inputs that answer your actual question

To continue a puzzle, enter your last accepted word as the start and keep the original target. To compare two complete routes, start with the original starting word instead. These tasks can produce different move counts because the solver measures from the word you give it, not from the beginning of an unseen game.

The start and target fields each require exactly four letters. Case is normalized, and surrounding spaces are ignored. A phrase, apostrophe, digit or different word length is outside this tool's input format. If a word is absent from the list, the solver names the missing endpoint rather than inventing a connection.

For a route check, paste the words in order, including the starting word. Spaces, commas or arrows can separate them. The checker uses the target in the target-word box, so change that field if your pasted route aims somewhere other than POOP. The input supports up to one hundred words; a short reproducible example is usually easier to inspect.

If both endpoints are the same accepted word, the answer takes zero moves. The route contains that word once. This is a valid boundary case and should not be confused with submitting the same word twice as two successive moves in a game.

Interpret a search result carefully

A shortest-path search establishes the fewest changes among the words it is allowed to use. It does not measure how quickly a person will discover the route. An unfamiliar two-step bridge can be harder to spot than a longer chain of everyday words. The displayed move count and your experience can therefore differ without either being an error.

When several routes tie, the tool can show up to six examples. Seeing six does not prove there are exactly six, because the display is capped. The cap keeps the result manageable; it does not change the minimum distance. You can inspect another route without assuming that the first one has a special status.

A disconnected pair has no route within the selected list. Adding more words could create a bridge, and removing words could eliminate one. That is why a dictionary version accompanies the method. If two websites report different minima, first compare their accepted vocabulary and options before attributing the difference to a search error.

Reproduce a result or report a discrepancy

Record the start, target, familiar-word setting, displayed route and dictionary version. This small set of details is enough to repeat the same search. For a pasted route, preserve every word up to the first reported error. A report saying only that the answer looks wrong does not identify which rule or entry needs attention.

The accepted list is derived from SCOWL source word lists ↗, with the selection and exclusions explained on the dictionary information page. Source membership and this site's acceptance are distinct: the project uses a filtered four-letter selection, not every word in the source archive.

Send a reproducible case through Contact. If you are comparing an official puzzle, include its visible start and the particular word it rejected. Our result remains a result for our published vocabulary until compatibility with that game is established.