Solver
Word ladder solver: shortest path between two four-letter words
Type a starting word (and, if you like, a different goal than POOP). The solver finds the shortest ladder where each step changes exactly one letter and every step is a real word.
About this solver
The solver runs entirely in your browser. It builds a graph of four-letter words linked by one-letter changes and runs a breadth-first search, so the answer is the true minimum. When several shortest ladders exist it shows the one made of the most common words and tells you how many others there are. Tick the box to restrict it to the word list used by the original Poople, which is smaller than ours — handy if you want to check a ladder for the daily puzzle at poople.io.
Prefer to play? Today's Poople Unlimited puzzle is waiting, and the answer page has today's official solution.