Terms

Effective October 18, 2026.

Word Ladder Generator is a word game operated by Richard Gao. By opening or playing the site, you agree to these terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the site.

The game

You pick two words. A friend tries to change one letter at a time until they reach the other word. The site may change, break, or go away. A puzzle you could solve yesterday may not be available later.

What you may do

You may play and send links for personal use. You may not attack the site, overload it, scrape it in order to rebuild it, or use it to break the law. The software is also offered under the MIT license in the project repository. That license covers the code, not a promise that the live site will keep running.

Whose work this is

Changing one letter at a time to turn one word into another is a traditional puzzle. Word Ladder Generator is an independent game. It is not Wordle, it is not affiliated with The New York Times, and it is not affiliated with any other word-game publisher. Do not use those names or their art to describe this site.

The word list is the public-domain ENABLE list, filtered to words of three, four, and five letters. The text, layout, and code of this site are otherwise owned by the operator, except for services run by other companies, including the host and the analytics provider named in the Privacy Policy.

No warranty

The site is provided as is. There is no warranty that it is accurate, available, or fit for a particular purpose, and no warranty that it does not infringe someone else’s rights.

Limits on claims

To the extent the law allows, the operator is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, or for lost data or lost profits, arising from use of the site. The operator’s total liability for a claim about the site is limited to the greater of the amount you paid to use it in the previous 12 months or 10 US dollars. You have paid nothing to play. Some places do not allow these limits, and in those places they apply only as far as the law allows.

Ads and changes

The site may show ads from Google AdSense. Additional data collection will be described in an updated Privacy Policy before it starts. These terms may also be updated. The effective date at the top will change. Continuing to use the site after an update means you accept the update.

Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the place where the operator lives, excluding conflict-of-law rules. If a court will not enforce one sentence, the rest still applies.

Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent through the Word Ladder Generator repository.