Change One Letter

What other English words can you make by changing just one letter from a donor word? You can only replace one letter to find each new word and all other letters must remain in the same order.

For example SOAP can be changed into SLAP, SNAP, SOAK, SOAR, SOUP, SWAP.

How many different words can you make from a donor word by only changing a single letter? All other letters must remain in the same order. This is the first step in making a Word Ladder. I first encountered this puzzle on the UK gameshow Pointless and so wrote this tool to help find answers.

NOTES: In this tool, the input word itself does not need to be present in the dictionary, you can search with any string, such as 'ABCD'. The donor word will also appear in the solution list.

Searching the dictionary, the most prolific word is CARES which can be used to generate 37 other words with a single letter substiution. Other noteworthy mentions include: TAT for (35), PINS, PAT and CARE for (33), BATS (32), COWING for (23), BARKING for (18), BATTERED for (11), BATTERING for (12), CHATTERING for (5), MUSTINESSES for (9).