I think soot has posted some of these in the past, so thanks for the idea, soot.

Change 1 letter at a time to change word 1 into word 2. The number of moves
it took me are in parantheses. See if you can meet or, better yet, beat them.

Example: To change boy into man: boy, bay, ban, man

-1. wine > cask (4)
-2. bank > note (4)
-3. head > foot (5)
-4. leaf > tree (7)
-5. black > white (8) (2 solutions by BobH)
6. small > great (9) - In my solution the 4th word from the left (3rd move) is "thill"

1. wine -> wane -> cane -> case -> cask

Rog

2. bank>bane>bone>none>note

Doreen

3. head, heat, beat, boat, boot, foot

manxman

4. leaf, leas, lees, fees, feet, fret, free, tree

Lees is a bit iffy but I can see it used in a nautical context, lees and starboards.

I would like to find something better though.

Bob

I think your solution is fine. I like it better than I do mine. The only way I found
to do it in 7 moves was to use a proper name for the second word. Although, that's
allowed, I prefer not to do it.

5. black, slack, shack, shark, shirk, shire, shine, whine, white



Added: If I use the proper name Shane then I have 7.

black, slack, shack, shank, Shane, shine, whine, white

Bob, your solutions are correct and I've so noted on the original post.

But it can be done in 7 moves without using a proper name. Try sticking with "B"
as the first letter for the first 3 moves.

I just realized the above is incorrect. It would still require 8 moves, not 7.

Hint added for last one.

Wow! I learned a new word today. I didn't know there was a word for that.