Junctures

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Turn the day's start word into its end word through a set list of moves: swap, add, shuffle and remove.

Play Junctures

on junctures.app

Junctures puzzle #238: Meal to Bloom, with Swap, Add x 2, Shuffle and Remove tags and four empty word rows between MEAL and BLOOM

Junctures is a daily word-path puzzle. You get a start word, an end word and a list of moves, such as Swap x 2, Add x 2, Shuffle and Remove, and fill the rows between them; each row must be a real word made from the one before with one of the moves, and every move is used as many times as its tag says.

About Junctures

Junctures is a word ladder with a twist on the rules. Each puzzle shows the start and end words and its coloured move tags: Swap, Add, Shuffle and Remove, some marked x 2 to show they are used twice. A swap changes one letter, an add puts in one letter, a remove takes one out and a shuffle rearranges the letters. You fill the rows between the two words, each one a real word that follows from the one before through one of those moves, and the game labels each row with the move it saw (Removed R, Swapped B for G) and crosses off the tags as they are used.

Working out which move goes where is the heart of the puzzle. Going from BURST to HUSTLE means growing the word by one letter overall, so the adds and the remove have to fall in the right places, and a swap or shuffle has to bring the right letters into line. The number of rows changes with the day's moves: puzzle #238, MEAL to BLOOM, had four rows, and #251 had five. A hint button on each row helps when you are stuck.

Puzzles are numbered, one a day and the same for everyone, and the archive holds earlier ones. The home page keeps a count of puzzles played and solved. The game has a dark mode and a how-to-play guide, with no ads and no sign-up. It suits players who like word ladders and want each step to need more thought than changing one letter.

How to play Junctures

Read the day's start and end words and the move tags; a tag marked x 2 is used twice.
Type a word in the first row, made from the start word by one of the moves.
Continue row by row, crossing off each move, until the last row leads to the end word.
Use the hint bulb on a row if you are stuck.

Screenshots

Tips

Work out where the Add x 2 step must go by comparing the word lengths.
Shuffle is the easiest step to place last, once the right letters are in the word.
Try solving from the end word backward as well as forward.