Ladder

How to spell ladder

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ladder

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ladder mean?

1. nounA structure of two long side pieces joined by rungs, used for climbing up or down.
2. nounA series of stages by which someone advances, as in a career or social ranking.
3. nounA vertical line of broken stitches running through tights or stockings.

Ladder in a sentence

• He leaned the ladder against the gutter to clear the leaves.

• A graduate scheme helped her climb the corporate ladder quickly.

• She spotted a ladder snaking up her tights before the interview.

• A metal ladder folded neatly into the back of the van.

• Buying a small flat let them get onto the property ladder.

• A dab of clear varnish stopped the ladder from spreading further.

Where does ladder come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Ladder is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English hlæder, which already meant a frame of rungs used for climbing. It belongs to a wide West Germanic family, sharing its ancestry with the Dutch ladder and the German Leiter, all reaching back to a root meaning 'to lean' or 'to incline', the natural posture of a ladder propped against a wall. That same leaning root is distantly connected to words like 'lean' itself. The original spelling carried an 'hl-' cluster at the front, but the silent 'h' was dropped early in the medieval period, leaving the familiar 'l'. The doubled 'd' that trips some writers reflects the short vowel that precedes it, a regular English pattern in which a single stressed short vowel is followed by two consonants before the ending. The figurative use, as in a career or social ladder, grew up much later, treating advancement as a steady climb rung by rung.

How the word is built

• hlæder (Old English root meaning a set of rungs for climbing)
• doubled -dd- before -er