Word ladder
Encyclopedia
A Word Ladder is a word game
invented by Lewis Carroll
. A word ladder puzzle begins with two words, and to solve the puzzle one must find a chain of other words, where at each step the words differ by altering a single letter.
says that he invented the game on Christmas day in 1877. The first mention of the game in Carroll's diary was on March 12, 1878, which he originally called "Word-links", and described as a two-player game. Carroll published a series of Word ladder puzzles and solutions, which he then called "doublets", in the magazine Vanity Fair
, beginning with the March 29, 1879 issue. Later that year it was made into a book, published by Macmillan and Co
.
J. E. Surrick and L. M. Conant published a book Laddergrams of such puzzles in 1927
Vladimir Nabokov
alluded to the game (as "word golf") in the novel Pale Fire
, where the narrator says 'some of my records are: hate—love in three, lass—male in four, and live—dead in five (with "lend" in the middle)'
COLD -> CORD -> CARD -> WARD -> WARM
Often Word Ladder puzzles are created where the end word has some kind of relationship with the start word (synonym
ous, antonym
ous, semantic...). This was also the way the game was originally devised by Lewis Carroll when it first appeared in Vanity Fair
.
Variations
Some variations also allow the following changes at each step:
used a computer to study Word Ladders of five-letter words. He believed that three-letter Word Ladders were too easy (although Lewis Carroll found six steps were required for APE to evolve into MAN), and that six-letter Word Ladders were too hard. He used a fixed collection of 5,757 of the most common English five-letter words, excluding proper noun
s. He determined exactly when two words of the collection had a Word Ladder between them via other words in the collection. Knuth found that most words were connected to each other, and he also found that 671 words of the collection did not form a Word Ladder with any other words. He called these words "aloof", because "aloof" is itself an example of such a word.
Word game
Word games and puzzles are spoken or board games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.Word games are generally engaged as a source of entertainment, but have been found to serve an educational purpose as well...
invented by Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
. A word ladder puzzle begins with two words, and to solve the puzzle one must find a chain of other words, where at each step the words differ by altering a single letter.
History
Lewis CarrollLewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
says that he invented the game on Christmas day in 1877. The first mention of the game in Carroll's diary was on March 12, 1878, which he originally called "Word-links", and described as a two-player game. Carroll published a series of Word ladder puzzles and solutions, which he then called "doublets", in the magazine Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (British magazine)
The second Vanity Fair was a British weekly magazine published from 1868 to 1914.-History:Subtitled "A Weekly Show of Political, Social and Literary Wares", it was founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles, who aimed to expose the contemporary vanities of Victorian society. The first issue appeared in London...
, beginning with the March 29, 1879 issue. Later that year it was made into a book, published by Macmillan and Co
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
.
J. E. Surrick and L. M. Conant published a book Laddergrams of such puzzles in 1927
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
alluded to the game (as "word golf") in the novel Pale Fire
Pale Fire
Pale Fire is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire", written by the fictional John Shade, with a foreword and lengthy commentary by a neighbor and academic colleague of the poet. Together these elements form a narrative in which both authors are...
, where the narrator says 'some of my records are: hate—love in three, lass—male in four, and live—dead in five (with "lend" in the middle)'
Rules
The player is given a start word and an end word. In order to win the game, the player must change the start word into the end word progressively, creating an existing word at each step. Each step consists of replacing a single letter. For example, the following is a solution to the Word Ladder puzzle between words "Cold" and "Warm".COLD -> CORD -> CARD -> WARD -> WARM
Often Word Ladder puzzles are created where the end word has some kind of relationship with the start word (synonym
Synonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
ous, antonym
Antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
ous, semantic...). This was also the way the game was originally devised by Lewis Carroll when it first appeared in Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (British magazine)
The second Vanity Fair was a British weekly magazine published from 1868 to 1914.-History:Subtitled "A Weekly Show of Political, Social and Literary Wares", it was founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles, who aimed to expose the contemporary vanities of Victorian society. The first issue appeared in London...
.
Variations
Some variations also allow the following changes at each step:
- Adding a letter
- Removing a letter
- Use the same letters in different order (an anagramAnagramAn anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
)
Five-letter Word Ladders
Donald KnuthDonald Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuth is a computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.He is the author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms...
used a computer to study Word Ladders of five-letter words. He believed that three-letter Word Ladders were too easy (although Lewis Carroll found six steps were required for APE to evolve into MAN), and that six-letter Word Ladders were too hard. He used a fixed collection of 5,757 of the most common English five-letter words, excluding proper noun
Proper noun
A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing a unique entity , as distinguished from a common noun, which represents a class of entities —for example, city, planet, person or corporation)...
s. He determined exactly when two words of the collection had a Word Ladder between them via other words in the collection. Knuth found that most words were connected to each other, and he also found that 671 words of the collection did not form a Word Ladder with any other words. He called these words "aloof", because "aloof" is itself an example of such a word.
External links
- Word Chains - free online version of word ladders
- Free WordLadder Program at http://www.ihsan.biz/word.html#wordladderDesc
- Doublets, a word puzzle, by Lewis Carroll
- Word Ladder Blog - free online word ladder blog