FOUR LETTER WORD LEXICON

A:

B:

C:

D:

E:

F:

G:

H:

I:

J:

K:

L:

M:

N:

O:

P:

Q:

R:

S:

T:

U:

V:

W:

X:

Y:

Z:

CONTACT US

Want to know more about Morflets®? Or share ideas about how to improve the game?

Got ideas for new Morflets®?

Think we might have made a mistake on one of our solutions? Maybe you know of a legitimate four letter word that we’ve missed in our lexicon.

If you just like the game, and want more varied Morflets® experiences, email us and we’ll share with you Morflets® Combos, Find-The-Secret-Phrase Morfletsd®, and other varietals.

Or go to our “Books” section to order more Morflets®n games in book form.

We’d love to hear from you.

Email us at info@morflets.com

BOOKS

You can order a Morflets® Game book with dozens of new Morflets®, and unusual and original game combinations, including some challenging 5-letter Morflets®, multiple Morflet® combinations, Find-the-Secret-Phrase, and more! It’s great for travel and bedside! 40 pages of fun!

Send your request via snail mail or email to:

or:

Morflets® Books
2309 Hartrey
Evanston, IL 60201

Please include your mailing address and a check for $5. You’ll receive your book within 10-12 days. The books are in a series, so specify also if this is your first request (Book One) or indicate which book you want. You can order more than one at a time. 2 Books ($8) 3 Books ($10). Please, no more than 3 books with any single order.

Thanks for playing!

Object of the Game

Find the shortest way from one word to another by changing only one letter at a time, forming a new real word each time. No proper names. There are many solutions, but the challenge is to ”morf” the start word into the finish word in as few steps as possible. Simple, right?

But Morflets® ™ are distinguished from ordinary, random word ladders by the implicit connection between the start and finish words, and by the sometimes wicked challenges to finding solutions that more complex Morflets ® ™ present. Skeptical? Try some of our “difficult” ones!

If you’re new to Morflets® ™, here is a sample—bulk:mail—that can be done in as few as 4 “morfs:”

bulk

bull (1) change “k” to “l”

mull (2) change “b” to “m”

mall (3) change “u” to “a”

mail (4) change “l” to “i”

Since all 4 letters have to change, the shortest possible solution is 4. This is only one of several possible solutions of that length; and there are countless other solutions that might take more “morfs.” As you gain experience, you’ll begin to see patterns develop, and you’ll be ready for some of the really complex Morflets ® ™ that are on the website, and that we continue to create to challenge you.

How to Play the Game

A simple example: Transforming slob into snob is achieved by substituting the consonant “n” for the consonant “l” in the second letter position. That is a single “morf.”

To change slob into knob, however, requires two transformations, because two letters have to be changed: the “s” in the first position, and the “l” in the second. The “ob” remains.

To complete the Morflet®™ slob:knob, you might try turning slob into klob and klob into knob, but klob is not a real word, is it? So you have to try a different route. Try changing slob into snob and then snob into knob, and you have successfully completed a Morflet®!

Now, to complete the Morflet® slob:knit, notice first that all four letters have changed, so you know it’s going to take at least four transformations, and maybe more. We already know slob becomes snob, which becomes knob. We know that the “o” in the third position must become an “i,” and that the “b” in the fourth position must become a “t.” The obvious choice is to create knot first (because knib isn’t a real word) and finish with knit. Four transformations.

Is this the only way to transform slob into knit? No. But that’s the beauty of Morflets®™: there are always a variety of solutions, and usually—but not always!—more than one “shortest” solution.

Here are just a few alternate solutions for the Morflet® slob:knit, including our first example. The transitions are color-coded:

Beginners often take more than the fewest number of transformations. As you gain experience, you’ll begin to discover shorter solutions than our “par!”

Becoming An Expert

Imagine if the consonants and vowels are not in the same positions, however. In the Morflet®™ clay:form, for example, the “a” in clay is in the third position, whereas in form the “o” is in the second position. Since you can only change one letter at a time, and since there are no words consisting of four consonants, logic tells us that there must be a transition word with two vowels in the second and third positions. The “l” in clay must sooner or later become an “o”, and the “a” in clay must become an “r.” So it only makes sense to think of transitions that include a word with “oa” or “oo” in the middle!

Here are a few alternate solutions for the Morflet®™ clay:form, some that take more transitions than others. The letter changes are highlighted:

In this example, Kim’s solution to the Morflet®™ clay:form would be the winner because it took only her six “morfs” while the others took seven. Part of her success was knowing that “cloy” and “coot” are real words.

More Secrets (Pssst! Don’t tell anyone!)

The most challenging Morflets®™ require multiple positional changes of consonants and vowels. As a general rule, the positioning is more significant than which vowel. So in the Morflet®™ even:odds, the first letter position change from “e” to “o” is less important than the third letter position change from a vowel to a consonant (“e” to “d”). Start your thinking there: ask yourself “Can I make a word changing the consonant to a vowel, and if so, can I then change the vowel or consonant if need be later?” In this case, the answer would be yes. Odds can become odes. Then ask yourself “Can I or should I change even to a word that can more easily be transformed into odes?” Again the answer is yes. Even can become eves. Now you are looking to transform eves:odes. Much easier! You can look to do simple switching of one vowel to another vowel and one consonant to another consonant. Here eves can become aves and odes can become ades and you are done:

Only 5 transitions—and it appeared way more complex when you started!

ONLINE PLAY AND SCORING

Once you understand how to play Morflets®, online play is simple and fun, offering you the chance to play with either serious intent—to get the best score—or to just begin experimenting with a few games at various difficulty levels. Online play allows you to back up and change a word if you like, prior to completing your last transition word.

In the tabletop version of the game, and in normal gameplay, you can work from start word to finish word, or from finish word to start word or a combination of both. You can still—and should—think that way.

But online, when filling out the boxes, you must, start from the top and work your way down.

Once you have submitted your last transition word and clicked "save", you'll automatically be shown your results: How many transitions you took compared to the target (par) and what your score is compared to that target (par). If the target for your Morflet® was 5 and you completed the game in only 4 transitions, you would receive a score of -1. (Or, like golf, one under par.) Likewise, if you took 7 transitions and the target was 4, your score would be +3 (or three over par.

In addition, your solution will automatically be posted on the solutions link next to the target solution.

WHAT ABOUT COMPETING AGAINST OTHERS?

In a way, you already are. As more and more players find this site, we'll look for ways to allow you to compete directly with another player during the run of your gameplay. Until then, enjoy seeing how you stack up against other players in the solutions link.

ABOUT US

Morflets® evolved from a logic section of my daughter Claire’s math book which presented traditional “word ladders” evolved from the game Lewis Carroll invented for his daughter Alice. Start with one word, change one letter to make a new word—and so on, until you reach another predetermined “finish” word.

When I suggested that the solution presented in her textbook wasn’t the best, she asked me what did I mean, and I wrote a “shorter” series. She was energized, and couldn’t wait to show her teacher the “new” possibility. Her teacher was unimpressed. For the teacher, “shorter” didn’t means “better,” it only meant “different” because the exercise was one in logical-linear thinking. But when she got home she asked me to “do it again.” So I made up another couplet, and she worked at it. “Is this the best?” she asked. I said, I thought so. I did my best to try to come up with a shorter one, and she exploded with pride. “Lets do another one!” she cried.

Before you know it, we had created and “solved” a hundred “morflets.” Then two hundred. We played in the car, at night in bed, at the kitchen table, in restaurants waiting for food—we scribbled on napkins, paper tablecloths, notepaper and Kleenex. She was fiercely competitive, but didn’t care if she “won” or “lost.” She just wanted to see how she could do.

One of the fun aspects we always sought out, and which was a driving force in gearing the game towards classrooms at the outset, was to create couplets of words that had a relationship that would intrigue players of all ages and make them smile and want to play. Changing “pick” to “nose” makes you smile even before you begin! So too with “eyes” to “brow.” And “cook” to “boil” gets a different reaction than “cook” to “book.”

In 2002 I made the first prototype of what I then called “WordMorph” and several years later we launched this site under another name. In 2008, the game was renamed “Morflets®” and the site became www.morflets.com. In between, I developed hundreds and hundreds more couplets with the idea of this being an educational game, which I then proceeded to take into classrooms of 4th graders and up to 10th graders. I developed boxed versions for teachers to use, and table-top versions to play at home, the same way families played Boggle or Crosswords or Jumbles.

People who loved word games “got it.” And they played and played.

Turns out looking for the “shortest” solution was rewarding on many levels!