Word Ladders

Puzzle Statement:

Take two words that have the same length. Can you change one word into another, changing only one letter at a time, with each intermediate word also being a legitimate part of the English lexicon?

For example, let's change "cat" to "dog":

c	a	t
c	o	t
d	o	t
d	o	g

Solutions

Well, it depends on what you want to try. Here are some examples:

t a l k
t a n k
t a n g
s a n g
s i n g

b i r d
g i r d
g i r t
g i s t
f i s t
f i s h

b l a c k
c l a c k
c l i c k
c h i c k
c h i n k
c h i n e
w h i n e
w h i t e

s a n t a
s a n t o
p a n t o
p a n t y
p u n t y
p u n n y
b u n n y

b i r t h
b e r t h
p e r t h
p e r c h
p e a c h
l e a c h
l e a s h
d e a s h
d e a t h

y e l l o w
f e l l o w
f a l l o w
f a l l o t
b a l l o t
b a l l e t
b i l l e t
p i l l e t
p i o l e t
v i o l e t

f o o t
f o o d
f o n d
f i n d
h i n d
h a n d

g r o w
b r o w
b r o s
b i o s
b i o l
b i l l
k i l l

b r a i n
b r a i d
b r a n d
b r a n s
b e a n s
b e a r s
h e a r s
h e a r t

h o r s e
h o u s e
r o u s e
r o u g e
r o u g h
l o u g h
l a u g h

s l o w
s l o t
s l i t
f l i t
f a i t
f a s t

The Program

Click HERE to see the tcl program.

The Output

Here's some example output from the program:


H:\TclStuff>H:\as\bin\tclsh wordge cat dog
H:\as\bin\tclsh wordge cat dog
Reading word file...Done.
Processing word list...Done.
Recursively generating "next step" array...Done.
Now seeking solutions.
cat bat bot dot dog
cat cot bot bog dog
cat cot dot dog

H:\TclStuff>