snakes and ladders
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
a situation with unpredictable ups and downs
Literally: game board with snakes and ladders
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “snakes and ladders” mean?
a situation with unpredictable ups and downs Literally: game board with snakes and ladders
Is “snakes and ladders” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.