What is Stepwords?
Stepwords is a daily anagram ladder. Each row has a clue, and each answer uses all the letters of the previous answer plus exactly one additional letter. Solving one row therefore gives you a constrained letter set for the next.
The main daily puzzle has seven steps, while Quick offers a shorter five-step ladder. Archives and puzzle statistics provide ways to revisit earlier challenges and follow your progress.
How one answer becomes the next
The word length grows by one at each step, but the existing letters can be rearranged. A simple illustrative chain is AT → CAT → COAT: each move preserves the previous letters and adds one new letter. The actual puzzle also requires each word to answer its own clue.
A ladder marker identifies the added letter's position unless you use Hard mode, which hides that assistance. Multi-word answers include word lengths, and clues follow crossword-style conventions for tense and number.
How to solve a ladder
- Choose the daily puzzle or Quick and read the first clue.
- Enter an answer of the required length and submit it.
- Carry its letters into the next row, add one letter, and rearrange them to satisfy the new clue.
- Check the letter inventory whenever a tempting answer fails to fit the chain.
- Finish all the steps, using the hint tools if needed, then review the result.
What the colors and hints mean
Green records a first-try correct answer. Yellow indicates that a row needed extra guesses or hints; these colors describe the solve, rather than providing Wordle-style letter-position feedback.
Hints can reveal starting-letter information, groups of letters, or part of a particular answer. Fewer mistakes and hints produce a stronger star result. When stuck, try solving the clue independently, then compare the proposed word with the previous row's letters. That cross-check often reveals which letter you need to add.