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Word Ladder #202

Floor 2 · Medium

About room #202

Ladder
TELL → SKID
Word length
4
Par (fewest steps)
5
Letters that differ
4

Room #202 climbs from TELL to SKID. Of their 4 letters, 4 differ (positions 1, 2, 3, 4); each of those needs a rung of its own, so the shortest imaginable ladder has 4 rungs — par here is 5.

So 1 rung is a sidestep: somewhere a correct letter gets spoiled for a moment, or a letter from neither word is borrowed.

If a step leads to a word that can only change back, undo it and try another position.

Four-letter words, but five or six steps.

Stuck? Open a hint

Hint: the first step

Change letter 2 to A: TALL.

Show one shortest ladder

TELL → TALL → TAIL → SAIL → SAID → SKID

Rules of Word Ladder · One letter at a time: planning ladders and guesses