Ducklark Games / Stepword ladders / Ladder #19

Stepword #19: Lift a STONE with a SPADE

Stepword’s Saturday ladder, #19, told the story “Lift a STONE with a SPADE” and asked for a climb of 4 steps. The start word was SPADE, the goal STONE, and the date was Oct 24.

The facts for #19

• Date: Saturday, October 24, 2026
• Start word: SPADE
• Goal word: STONE
• Par: 4 steps
• Word length: 5 letters

Reading par 4 in #19

You might think 3 steps would do, since that is how many places differ between SPADE and STONE. Par is 4, so the best climb spends one rung on a side step.

Both words have S and E in the first and fifth place, which gives you something to hold on to. SPADE has 2 vowels and STONE has 2 vowels. Par can be reached by 2 different ladders in the game’s word list.

• Letter 1: S to S (already there)
• Letter 2: P to T
• Letter 3: A to O
• Letter 4: D to N
• Letter 5: E to E (already there)

Ladder #19 against the others

Weekday ladders use four letters and weekend ladders five; this Saturday one used 5. 8 of the 23 ladders so far have had a par of 4.

Can I still play #19?

This ladder is recent enough to replay: open #19 here or choose it from the calendar on Stepword’s title screen. Replays are kept apart from your streak and stats.

Play Stepword

The climb itself is left for you.

The days around ladder #19

• Stepword #18: TOIL all day then REST (Oct 23), TOIL to REST, par 6
• Stepword #20: Follow BIRDS to the RIVER (Oct 25), BIRDS to RIVER, par 6

Looking for another day? Try the ladders page. Rules are in the how-to-play guide. For trivia and mini crosswords, see the topics hub.