About Wordstep

A small change can take you somewhere unexpected.

Wordstep is a daily word-ladder game: start with one word, change a single letter at each step, and arrive at another. The pleasure is in discovering the words in between. A good route can feel obvious once you see it—and surprising until you do.

A daily ritual, at your pace

There are two shared daily challenges: Easy uses four-letter words; Hard uses five. Everyone on the same release gets the same pair for that date. The next pair arrives at midnight UTC. Practice is there whenever you want another go.

There is no timer, account, or move limit. You can undo a detour, ask for a hint, or return to an unfinished puzzle. The move count measures the steps in your current chain, so finding a shorter route is part of the game.

How the puzzles are chosen

Each pair has a route through our common-word collection. We also check it against the larger game dictionary, so the displayed minimum really is the shortest route under Wordstep’s rules. Easy routes take three to five moves; Hard routes take five to eight.

The dictionary includes UK and US spellings and comes from the SCOWL word-list project. It is a fixed collection, not every possible English word. Proper-name and abbreviation categories are excluded. Alternative routes count whenever every move follows the rules and every word is in that collection.

Word ladders are a long-established puzzle form. Wordstep’s contribution is a quiet place to play them, with daily pairs, unlimited practice, and room to explore without a clock.

Your progress stays with you

Your saved chains live in this browser. We do not create a player account or send your moves to a game server. Read about saved data and privacy, or get in touch if something seems wrong.