Word.ws English Dictionary

on the ladder

on the ladder prepositional phrase: on a property ladder, owning property.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK, idiomatic) On a property ladder, owning property.
    • When someone has bought their first house, they are said to have got on the ladder.

Questions about on the ladder

What does on the ladder mean?
On the ladder means on a property ladder, owning property.
What part of speech is on the ladder?
On the ladder is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the ladder in the dictionary

  1. on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog
  2. on the jar
  3. on the job
  4. on the jump
  5. on the knocker
  6. on the ladder
  7. on the lam
  8. on the lamb
  9. on the lash
  10. on the latch
  11. on the level

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the ladder (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-on the ladder.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on the ladder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_ladder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.