Word Ladder: Ship to Slow
Read the puzzle
A word ladder climbs from SHIP to SLOW, changing one letter at each step: SHIP, SHOP, ?, SNOW, SLOW. Which word fills the gap: SHOT, STOP, SHOW or SHOE?
Which word fills the gap?
It must differ by one letter from SHOP and from SNOW.
SHOW
SHOP to SHOW changes P to W; SHOW to SNOW changes H to N.
How to solve it
Step one: the missing word must be one letter away from SHOP, below it, and one letter away from SNOW, above it.
Step two: compare SHOP and SNOW. The S and the O match. The second letter differs, H against N, and the last letter differs, P against W. The gap word must fix one of these and leave the other.
Step three: try both orders. Changing the last letter first gives SHOW, a real word. Changing the second letter first gives SNOP, which is not. So the gap is SHOW: SHOP to SHOW swaps P for W, and SHOW to SNOW swaps H for N.
Check the other choices. SHOT and SHOE are each one step from SHOP, but both are two steps from SNOW, since the H and the last letter differ. STOP is one step from SHOP and two from SNOW.
The usual wrong answer is SHOT or SHOE, picked because they change just one letter of SHOP. They only satisfy the lower neighbour. A quick check: in a correct ladder, the gap word shares three letters in place with both the word below and the word above.
