thirty
shirty
shorty
short
sort
fort
forty
fort
for
fir
fit
fist
Fisty, Kentucky 41743
fifty

[This message was edited by jerry thomas on Thu Jun 19th, 2003 at 19:15.]

I can only do one at a time (and I am lucky if I can do that!)

fifty
fifth
fith Sorry, Tinman!
fit
sit
sis
pis
piss
siss
sissy
missy
misty
sisty
sixty

Okay, you two champs, I obsessed over this; "sisty" is not really legitimate. Am I missing something? I did note that "sixty" has no absolute rhymes, at least according to rhymezone. There is a "mixity", and not only did I have a hard time getting to that, but then what? There is no "mixty" nor "sixity." Grrrr!

short and sweet !

forty
forth
firth
fifth
fifty

and even

fifty
fifth
firth Edit: sorry for the omission; vide supra
forth
fort
sort
sot
sit
silt
silty
sixty

funny that sixty should be closer to forty than to fifty...

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Fri Jun 20th, 2003 at 18:20.]

Do I begin to see an algorithm that grinds out these changes: work both ends of the chain down to four- or even three-letter words, which have _great_ flexibility, and then join the two threads...

quote:

---

Originally posted by jerry thomas:
shirty

---

What a great word!
Tinman

Yes, I agree about "shirty", Tinman. I have learned more words doing this!

Haberdasher, I missed "silty"! If you saw, I did have "sit"; I could have gone to "silt", "silty", and then "sixty"! Grrrrr!

twenty
tenty
tent
ten
ton
torn
tort
sort
short
shirt
shirty
thirty

(Aside to Kalleh: Yes, and it would have been shorter, too, but much less picturesque!)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Yes, I agree about "shirty", Tinman. I have learned more words doing this!

---

So have I. In trying to get from fifty to sixty, I found these words:
firth
niffy
biffy
niff
biff
riff
rit
sith
iff pronunciation
fust

If only I could remember them!

quote:

---

Haberdasher, I missed "silty"! If you saw, I did have "sit"; I could have gone to "silt", "silty", and then "sixty"! Grrrrr!

---

That gets you around sisty, but what about fith?

fifty fifth firth first firs fir fit sit silt silty sixty
================================================
I screwed up. Haberdasher pointed out that I'm missing a step between firth and first. I can't find anything to fit, so it's back to the drawing board.

Tinman

[This message was edited by tinman on Sun Jun 22nd, 2003 at 22:42.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by haberdasher:
Do I begin to see an algorithm that grinds out these changes: work both ends of the chain down to four- or even three-letter words, which have great flexibility, and then join the two threads...

---

Yes. I suppose the greatest challenge would be to do them with the mimumum number of length-changes. But that's a challenge that I personally cannot meet.

Thanks, Tinman! Of all our games, I think we have learned the most from this one.

(to this thread, anyway)

To sum up:
one
on
ton
to
two
to
toe
the
thee
three
thee
tree
fee
foe
for
four
fur
fir
fire
five
dive
dine
sine
sin
six
sir
sire
sere
see
seen
seven
seen
see
sere
sire
sir
sin
sign
sigh
sight
eight
sight
sigh
sign
sin
sine
nine
tine
tin
ten
teen
seen
seven
even
elven (well, maybe not in dictionary.com but 317,000 hits on Google® )
eleven
Leven
even
elven (as above)
elve
delve
Telve (something to do with Turkey)
twelve
…
twenty
tenty
tent
ten
ton
torn
tort
sort
short
shirt
shirty
thirty
shirty
shorty
short
sort
fort
forty
forth
firth
fifth
fifty
fifth
firth
forth
fort
sort
sot
sit
silt
silty
sixty

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Wed Jun 25th, 2003 at 11:11.]

((( Thanks, arnie!))

How about some new fodder for this game.

Would it be an amusing challenge to link the Seven Heavenly Virtues (faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance, prudence)?

... or the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Envy
Gluttony,Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth)?

With your permission, I'll start.
Sloth
slot
sot
sod
bod
bud
dud
dude
rude
prude
Pride


On second thought, it might be best to list lust last lest lust be lost.

anger
auger
huger
huge
hug
hum
ham
had
head
read
reed
greed

BTW had ==> lad ==> lid ==> lit ==> list etc.

and also had ==> bad ==> bug ==> hug etc.

so we have five of the seven can be changed into each other...

"Envy" is going to be tough to morph. So far I can't get beyond envy ==> envoy ==> enjoy

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Wed Jun 25th, 2003 at 13:27.]

faith
fath
hath
hoth
hote
hope

I think this is what we're doing, but I am never sure with this thread. Jerry and haberdasher have a way of confusing me.

Charity has me stumped, but some translations list love instead of charity among the virtues.

hope
hove
love

charity ==> clarity ==> clarify
but there I dry up.

Is "charty" a word? Analogous to "tenty"? Then we could go just about anywhere !

charity
charty
chart
hart
hat
...

I went crazy trying to get something from "charity". I, too, got "clarity" and "clarify", got all excited, but then could go nowhere. I couldn't find that "charty" is a word.

So....how about the months? I will start:

June
jure
July

charity
clarity
clarty
clary
lary
lar
la
a

Tinman

quote:

---

So....how about the months? I will start:

June
jure
July

---

jure to July? How about:

June
Jule
July

You're right, of course, Morgan! I have tried to avoid the words that are names, though, such as "Jule". I had meant to do it this way:

June
jure
jury
July

Tinman, you're a genius!

March
marsh
mars
mar
ma
a
ai
ail
aril (crossword-puzzle: "seed coat," four letters)
April
aril (if they want five letters, try "testa")
ail
mail
main
man
May
man
tan
tun
tune
June

(edited to avoid proper name: March ==> Marc ==> mar)

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Sat Jul 5th, 2003 at 13:55.]

I had a hunch that those of you who are good at this do crossword puzzles. I don't.

July
juls
jus
just
aust
augst
August

August
augst
aust (in dictionary.com as an Australian)
ast (in dictionary.com as Alaskan Standard Time)
as
asa (an ancient name of a gum)
asap
sap
sat
set
sett
setto
septo
septe
septem


Well, folks, this is as far as I can come to September, and, even then, some of the words are a bit borderline! This is hard!

If the months are too limiting to transform, how about the days of the week?

MON
ton
tun
tuns
TUES
...

Take it away, gang!

WED

THURS

FRI

SAT

SUN



(One could start a whole new thread on the subject of whether the week starts with Monday or Sunday ! )

WED
red
read
tread
treed
tree
true
rue
hue
hur
hurs
THURS
tours
fours
furs
fury
fry
FRI

fry
fray
tray
troy
trot
tot
sot
SAT
rat
rut
run
SUN

[This message was edited by jerry thomas on Tue Jul 15th, 2003 at 10:33.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jerry thomas:

WED
red
read
tread
treed
tree
true
rue (==>rues==>TUES ! -hab. )
hue
hur
hurs
THURS
...

---

and finally SUN ==>son==> MON

orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

(not to include Infra-Red Ridinghood)

(but it's colorful in the end)


YELLOW
fellow
fallow
allow
alloy
allay
allays
always
aways (see your local golfer for explanation)
ways
way
wad
wed
wend
lend
lens
lees
lues (siphilis; it's pronounced LOO-eez)
glues
glue
BLUE

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Tue Jul 15th, 2003 at 15:50.]

RED
rend
'rand (not the McNally, the South African currency) (all right, rend==>rent==>rant==>ran, if you insist)
ran
rang
range
ORANGE

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Tue Jul 15th, 2003 at 15:35.]

ORANGE
grange
grane
grene
gree
GREEN

BLACK
...
WHITE

black
lack
lick
lice
lite
wite
white

Tinman

It's not "wite" I have a problem with as much as "lite."

--s/ Ever The Prescriptivist
(Motto: "Who ya gonna believe, me or some strange dictionary?")

Without it or something equivalent I can't yet do better than
black-->back-->balk-->walk-->wale-->whale-->while-->white

black
blank
blink
brink<--> rink <--> rank <--> ran <--> ray <--> gray <--> grey [whichever you like; take your pick! :-) ]
brine
brite
write
white

This has the added feature of being all five-letter words. But it's still seven steps.

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Thu Jul 31st, 2003 at 15:01.]

black
brack: 1. a crack or breach 2. salt or brackish water
brick
brink
brine
brite: to become overripe (of grain)
write

5-letter words, six steps

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kalleh:
fifty
fifth
.
.
.
misty
sisty
sixty

I obsessed over this; "sisty" is not really legitimate.

---

Well, here is a tale to make your cresh fleep.
It will give you poose gimples.

It's the story of Cinderella and her Sisty Uglers.
Read it out loud, and you'll be rolling on the floor in helpless laughter.

Hab, backtracking a bit, here's a quicker way to do yellow --> blue if you'll allow a mid-word letter to be deleted:

yellow
bellow
below
blow
blob
blub
blue

Well, thank you, Hic!
I am moving away from the rainbow here...
gold...pink
gild
gila
pila
pina
pink

[This message was edited by Kalleh on Sat Aug 2nd, 2003 at 15:21.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by haberdasher:
It's not "wite" I have a problem with as much as "lite."

---

"Lite" is a fairly common slang word. I generally prefer "light".

Tinman

quote:

---

Originally posted by tinman:

"lite" is a fairly common slang word.

---

Of course it is, but being a dinosaur I am less than enthusiastic about using common slang where a "real" word is needed. But then I object to split infinitives too, so what can you expect...

(Aren't power outages fun! And in the middle of composing messages, too! Maybe I can reconstruct this one.)

Sport Coat to Carnation:

white
whine
wine
wink
pink


How about SLOW to QUICK ? Seven steps or fewer. Nothing esoteric, but maybe a proper noun here and there...

Edit: Nope, lost it. Best I can do right now is "Ten steps or fewer."

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Mon Aug 4th, 2003 at 14:24.]

quote:

---

http://www.satiche.org.uk/satiche/sat-0439.htm.
Read it out loud, and you'll be rolling on the floor in helpless laughter.

---

...and for the original of this, and many others, consult Lemuel Stoopnagle here. Better still, buy it, and then read it aloud to your children. Very carefully. But beware, in my household it became a rite-of-passage ritual.

My favorite is "The Mion and the Louse."

fifty
fifth
firth
forth
fort
sort
sot
sit
silt
silty
sixty


But if we allow a bit of whimsy (not to be confused with a butt of Malmsey) we can shorten things considerably:

fifty
fifth
fifeth - what a Sixteenth-Century fifer doth
fixeth - what a Jack-of-all-trades doth
sixeth - as in Blackbeard's warning "He who deep-sixeth my treasure/Soon endureth my displeasure"
sixth
sixty

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Tue Aug 5th, 2003 at 14:57.]

slow
slog
log
bog
bug
bun
bunk
buck
Buick (as advertised - a proper noun here and there)
quick

How about slow to fast with all four-letter words, six steps?

slow
flow
flaw
flat
fiat
fist
fast

No "A" for me; I couldn't get it in 6.

You did precisely what was wanted: seven words to be sure, but only six steps.

Worth a full A every time!

How 'bout seven ==> words with only five letterers?
(no relation to Ann Landers, who was Eppie Lederer)

seven
sever
saver
waver
waves
wares
wards
words

In doing this I found the interesting word laver: a large basin used by a priest in an ancient Jewish Temple to perform ritual ablutions. But "sever-->lever-->laver-->waver" was shortened to "sever-->saver-->waver".

Hab, you're much better than I at posing these problems. Do us the honors again, please.

Very good; the sequence I came up with offhand was close but one step longer.

Lessee now. If we prefer our weapons to be made into plowshares, and the pen is mightier anyway, how about turning SWORD into WORDS ?

Edit. It's trivial if we can add and subtract letters (SWORD-->WORD-->WORDS), but not as straightforward as I was expecting if restricted to five-letter words only. I finally got a fifteen-word ladder, and then managed to shorten it to thirteen words, twelve steps. But that should be susceptible to improvement.

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Sat Aug 9th, 2003 at 11:06.]

sword
swore
spore
spare
spate
spats
spots
soots
sorts
worts
words

(It's not what I said; I lost my worksheet and had to start over from scratch.)

Anyone want to try making a POEM from LINEs, made from WORDs?

This man is serious; he has a worksheet! I just press reply and begin....

Maybe it's time to use a worksheet!