Rungs Game

Rungs is a word ladder with a memory twist. Lewis Carroll invented word ladders in 1877 and called them Doublets: climb from one word to another by changing one letter at a time, with a real word on every rung. Here every rung also has a clue, a short dictionary definition, and the clue fades after a few seconds, so you carry it in your head while you work out which letter changes. Finish a ladder and the next one is ready straight away. The link method helps you hold a clue as a picture.

How to play

1. The top word and the bottom word are given. Fill the rungs between them so the ladder climbs from one to the other.
2. Each rung is a common word that changes exactly one letter of the rung above it.
3. Select a rung and its clue shows for a few seconds, then fades. Moving away and back does not bring it back.
4. Type the word and press Enter. A right rung locks in. A real word that is not the answer counts as a wrong try. A word that is not in the list, or that changes more than one letter, is turned away and costs nothing.
5. Fill the rungs in any order. The up and down arrows change rung.
6. Stuck? A peek brings the selected rung's clue back for two seconds. Press Space or PEEK.
7. Lock in the last rung and the clock stops. Next puzzle deals a new ladder at once, as many as you like. Change level goes back to the start.

Choose a level on the start screen. Easy has three rungs to fill, shows each clue for 8 seconds, marks the place of the letter that changes and gives three peeks. Normal, the default, has four rungs, 4-second clues and two peeks. Hard has six rungs, 2-second clues and one peek. Every ladder has exactly one solution. Escape pauses.

The clues are the short definitions of Open English WordNet, picked and trimmed by a program, so now and then one may point at an unusual sense of its word. The credits page names the word lists and the dictionary.

Scoring

Your score is your time, with the peeks and wrong tries beside it. Each level keeps its own records:

• your best time,
• how many ladders you have climbed, and
• your longest run of ladders climbed without a peek.

Your records are saved in this browser only.

To turn a clue into a picture that lasts, read what a mnemonic image is and how to link them. Or try our other free memory games.