What is Weaver?
Weaver is a daily word ladder. You get a start word at the top and a target word at the bottom, and you have to build a chain of real words between them. Each new word may differ from the one before it by exactly one letter, so COLD might become CORD, then WORD, then WARD, and so on until you land on the target. The fewer steps you need, the better, and every rung has to be a genuine word. Word ladders are an old puzzle: Lewis Carroll is usually credited with inventing them in the 1870s. Weaver turns the idea into a tidy daily game with colour feedback that shows which letters already match the goal. If the classic ladder feels too easy, the same site runs Weaver X, where a step can also add or remove a letter, so the words grow and shrink along the way. Weaver suits anyone who likes Wordle but wants a puzzle about paths rather than guesses, and it rarely takes more than a few minutes.
How to play
- Type a word that changes just one letter of the word above it.
- Every step must be a real word. Letters that match the target are marked.
- Reach the target word in as few steps as you can.
Quick facts
- Typical time
- 2–6 min
- Difficulty
- Easy–medium
- Price
- Free.
- Account
- Not needed.
- On a phone
- Works in your phone's browser. Nothing to install.
- Harder version
- Weaver X, on the same site, also lets a step add or remove a letter.
Tips to get better
- Build from both ends. Work down from the start word and up from the target, and try to make the two chains meet in the middle.
- Know your par. Every letter that differs between start and target needs at least one step. If all four letters are different, four steps is the best anyone can do.
- Swap a vowel to get unstuck. Changing a vowel often opens up a new family of words: BAND, BIND, BOND. Consonant swaps tend to keep you circling the same spot.
- Plan the hard move. Compare where the vowels sit in the two words. If a vowel has to shift position, that's the difficult step, so work out how you'll do it first.
- Give up a match if you must. The game marks letters that already match the target. Usually you keep them, but sometimes you have to change one for a step and change it back later.
Who it's for
If you enjoy a small, clean puzzle with no trivia and no luck, Weaver delivers. It's over in a few minutes and there's always more than one route, so it rarely frustrates. It doesn't have the drama of a game with a guess limit, and on easy days it can feel slight. When that happens, Raddle adds clues and themes to the same idea.
