Poople Answer — #432, October 20, 2026

October 20, 2026 · #432: SUIT to POOP

SUIT and POOP differ in all four positions, yet the checked shortest route needs five changes. The extra move is at the second position: U becomes L before L becomes O near the end. That temporary L is easy to overlook if you try to copy the target letter by letter. The useful pattern in this solution is to keep the final T through the early moves, put P at the front, and change the ending only when the word is ready for it.

SUIT to SLIT changes the second letter from U to L. S, I, and T remain exactly where they were. This does not make the word look much more like POOP, but it creates the opening for SLIT to SLOT. That next move changes the third letter I to O. Notice that this O is in the third position, not the second. The two middle letters are different at this point: the word is S-L-O-T. Reading those letters separately helps prevent an accidental two-letter jump to a word with OO.

SLOT becomes PLOT when the first letter changes from S to P. You now have the first and third positions of the target in place. PLOT keeps the L and the final T, so there is no rearrangement even though the pronunciation changes. Skipping directly from SLIT to PLOT would replace both S and I and would break the rule. SLOT is the necessary stop in the displayed route. Each numbered line above represents one submission, which makes that skipped change easier to spot.

PLOT to PLOP changes the fourth letter from T to P. The outer letters now match POOP, and only the second position remains unfinished. PLOP to POOP replaces L with O without touching the first P, third O, or last P. This is the second change to the second position, completing the temporary detour introduced by the opening move. There are six words in the full ladder and five arrows between them. The initial SUIT is supplied by the puzzle; the arrow into POOP is the fifth move.

To retry this puzzle with a smaller clue, remember the order of the useful shapes rather than memorizing every word. The second letter temporarily becomes L, the third becomes O, and the outside letters settle before that L changes again. That describes why a move away from the target’s spelling can still belong in a shortest solution. A longer route can also be legal, but five is the checked minimum here. Use the archive’s neighboring dates for a different starting word after you have rebuilt this one without looking.

The early T is an anchor for the first three changes, and the L becomes an anchor for the middle three. Neither has to belong in the final word to be useful. Looking at those overlapping stretches can make the route easier to remember than a list of isolated substitutions. It also explains why the final middle-letter change waits until PLOP.