PUZZLE #444 · OCT 31, 2026
HAIR to POOP.
5 moves. 5 equally short routes. Here is one way through.
- STARThairYour starting word
- 01haikR → K
- 02hoikA → O
- 03hookI → O
- 04hoopK → P
- 05poopH → P · Made it!
The first move matters.
HAIR has 13 valid one-letter neighbors in this dictionary. 3 of them can begin a shortest path:
HAIKLAIRPAIR
Each of these leaves 4 moves to POOP. The other 10 neighbors are valid moves too, but cannot reach the target in the minimum from this starting word.
Follow the changes
The highlighted letter beside each step shows exactly which position changed. The sequence above is computed from the same dictionary as the game. Other shortest routes can take different intermediate words.
Compare routes in the solver →Explore shortest alternatives (5 total)
Showing 5 of 5 paths.
HAIR → HAIK → HOIK → HOOK → HOOP → POOP
HAIR → HAIK → HOIK → HOOK → POOK → POOP
HAIR → LAIR → LOIR → LOOR → LOOP → POOP
HAIR → LAIR → LOIR → LOOR → POOR → POOP
HAIR → PAIR → PAIS → POIS → POOS → POOP