About room #204
- Ladder
- DEAR → LOOM
- Word length
- 4
- Par (fewest steps)
- 5
- Letters that differ
- 4
Room #204 climbs from DEAR to LOOM. 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 1 to R: REAR.
Show one shortest ladder
DEAR → REAR → ROAR → ROAM → ROOM → LOOM
Rules of Word Ladder · One letter at a time: planning ladders and guesses