Poople Solver: the shortest word ladder from any word to POOP

How does the Poople solver work?

The solver runs entirely in your browser. It builds a graph of four-letter words linked by one-letter changes and runs a breadth-first search from your start word, so the ladder it returns is the true minimum, not a guess. When several shortest ladders exist it shows the one made of the most common words and tells you how many others there are. Tick the box to restrict it to the word list used by the original Poople, which is smaller than ours. That is the right setting for checking a ladder for the daily puzzle at poople.io.

Need today's Poople answer or just a hint?

"Solve today's Poople" above loads today's official start word and returns a shortest ladder. If you would rather not see the whole thing, the today's Poople answer page gives it in stages: par first, then which first moves keep par, then every shortest ladder. Playing on the home page, the Hint button points at the next useful letter without revealing the word.

Which words are one step from POOP?

In the original Poople word list only 11 words are one letter away from POOP: BOOP, COOP, GOOP, HOOP, LOOP, PLOP, POMP, POOF, POOL, POOR, PROP. Every ladder, however long, ends through one of these gateways, so the real work is reaching one of them quickly. Most short routes go through POOL, LOOP, COOP or HOOP because they connect to many common words; PLOP and PROP are the escape hatches for start words with awkward consonants.

Which word list does the Poople solver use?

Two lists, and you choose. The original Poople accepts 2,398 four-letter words; that list is public, and ticking "Use the original Poople word list" makes the solver use exactly it. Our own list has 3,237 words graded by how common they are, which is what Poople Unlimited practice mode uses. A ladder found on the larger list can contain a bridge the daily would reject, so for the real puzzle keep the box ticked.

How hard do Pooples get?

Of the 449 official Pooples so far, 245 had par 5, 148 had par 6, 26 had par 7, 24 had par 8, 6 had par 9, 1 had par 10. The longest ladders on record, every one solved on the Poople archive:

Poople solver FAQ

Is using a Poople solver cheating?

That is up to you. Most people use it after the puzzle, to see how far their ladder was from the shortest one, or when they are stuck and would rather learn the route than give up. Nothing you look up here affects the original game or your stats on this site.

Does the Poople solver work for today's puzzle?

Yes. Press "Solve today's Poople" and the solver fills in today's official start word and uses the original word list, so the ladder it finds is one the real game accepts. Yesterday and every earlier day are on the Poople answer pages with every shortest route listed.

Why is the solver's ladder different from mine?

Many start words have several shortest ladders. The solver shows the one made of the most common words and tells you how many others exist. If yours has the same number of steps, it is just as good.

Can the Poople solver find ladders to a word other than POOP?

Yes. Change the goal word to any four-letter word and it finds the shortest ladder between the two, if one exists. It is a general four-letter word ladder solver with Poople's rules.

Why does it say my word isn't in the list?

The solver checks every word against a dictionary. Untick "Use the original Poople word list" to search our larger list of 3,237 words; tick it to use the original's 2,398, which is what the daily puzzle accepts. If a common word is missing from ours, tell us.

Prefer to play? Today's Poople is waiting, and Poople Unlimited has endless practice ladders.