Word.ws English Dictionary

snakes and ladders

snakes and ladders noun: a children's luck-based board game of Indian origin, played on a numbered grid, the aim of which is to proceed to the end, and in which ladders aid progress and snakes impede it.

Noun

snakes and ladders (uncountable)

  1. A children's luck-based board game of Indian origin, played on a numbered grid, the aim of which is to proceed to the end, and in which ladders aid progress and snakes impede it.
  2. (figuratively) Any situation in which people or events go forward and backward, seemingly at random.
    • Teachers, senior teachers, and principal teachers would have built-in status and the scales would offer well-defined career prospects instead of the ambiguous and often misleading snakes-and-ladders situation which at present exists.1970, New Scientist, volume 45, numbers 682-694, page 493
    • His Mireille has had a snakes-and-ladders career, starting up, going down, then finally rising once more.1983, Opera, volume 34, numbers 7-12, page 1295

snakes and ladders meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Punjabi

snakes and ladders in Hindi

the game of snakes and ladders
साँपसीढ़ी sā̃psīṛhī

snakes and ladders in Tamil

the game of snakes and ladders
பரமபதம் paramapatam, ஏணியும் பாம்பும் ēṇiyum pāmpum

snakes and ladders in Kannada

ಹಾವು ಏಣಿ, ಕೈಲಾಸ ಪಟ

snakes and ladders in Punjabi

the game of snakes and ladders
ਸੱਪ ਪੌੜੀ sappa pauṛī

Synonyms of snakes and ladders

Forms of snakes and ladders

alternative formsnakes-and-ladders

Questions about snakes and ladders

What does snakes and ladders mean?
Snakes and ladders means a children's luck-based board game of Indian origin, played on a numbered grid, the aim of which is to proceed to the end, and in which ladders aid progress and snakes impede it.
What is snakes and ladders in Hindi?
Snakes and ladders in Hindi is साँपसीढ़ी (sā̃psīṛhī). See Snakes and ladders meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is snakes and ladders?
Snakes and ladders is a noun.

Words near snakes and ladders in the dictionary

  1. snakeroots
  2. snakers
  3. snakery
  4. snakes
  5. snakes alive
  6. snakes and ladders
  7. snakes in the grass
  8. snakes out
  9. Snakes Plain
  10. snakeshead
  11. snakesheads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: snakes and ladders (page history and authors); Snakes and ladders (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-snakes and ladders.wav.

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