How to play Word Groups

Sort sixteen words into the four hidden groups of four that belong together. One fresh word puzzle every day.

Word Groups is a once-a-day association puzzle. Sixteen words sit in a four-by-four grid, and hidden among them are four groups of four that belong together. Find all four groups.

Making a guess

Choose four words you believe share a connection and submit them.

A correct group locks to the top of the board and its category is revealed. A wrong guess costs one of your four mistakes. If exactly three of the four you chose belonged to one group, you are told you were one away — which is real information and worth a great deal.

Find all four groups to win. Run out of mistakes and the solution is revealed.

The overlap is the game

Almost every puzzle deliberately plants words that appear to fit two groups at once but belong to exactly one. This is not an occasional trick, it is the central mechanic, and it is why the obvious sort is usually wrong.

The consequence is that a group you can see is not a group you should submit. If you have found five words that seem to share a theme, you have found a trap: one of them belongs elsewhere, and guessing which is a one-in-five gamble that costs a mistake.

The reliable approach is to work backwards. Rather than starting with the theme that jumps out, look for the four words that have nowhere else to go. A group whose members are useless to every other category is a group you can submit safely.

Why the categories are sneakier than they look

Connections are rarely straightforward synonyms. Common patterns include words that all precede or follow the same hidden word, words that are all anagrams or homophones of something, words that share a hidden shorter word inside them, and words that all belong to a set outside their everyday meaning — parts of a car, characters in something, terms from a sport.

If a group of four looks like it means "types of bird" and the puzzle still is not solving, the connection is probably one level sideways from that.

How the daily puzzle is built

There is one shared puzzle per day and it is the same board for everybody, which is what makes the result worth sharing. Solving builds a streak, and the share text is a spoiler-free grid of coloured squares showing the order you found the groups in and the mistakes you made — never the words.

A new puzzle unlocks at midnight.

Shuffle

Shuffle rearranges the grid without changing anything. It exists because the arrangement genuinely affects what your eye groups together, and a board you have stared at for two minutes stops offering new readings. Use it when you are stuck rather than as a last resort.

Controls

Tap four words that share a theme, then press Submit. Tap a selected word again to deselect it, or use Deselect to clear. Shuffle rearranges the grid.

Keyboard

Tab to a tile and Enter to pick, Enter to submit.
S to shuffle, Escape to clear.

Strategy tips

Start with the group you are certain of, not the group you noticed first. The most obvious connection is usually the one with a planted extra word in it.
If you can see five words that fit a theme, do not guess. You have found the trap, and picking four of five costs a mistake most of the time.
Look for the words with nowhere else to go. A group whose members are useless to every other category is the safest submission on the board.
Take "one away" seriously. It tells you three of your four are together, so swapping one word at a time turns a guess into a short search.
Expect the connection to be sideways. Words that all precede the same hidden word, or all contain a smaller word, are far more common than plain synonyms.
Shuffle when you stall. The layout really does shape what your eye groups, and a board you have stared at stops offering new readings.
Solve the hardest group by elimination. Once three are locked, the fourth needs no insight at all — so spend your mistakes early rather than late.
Say the words out loud if a group will not come. Homophone and sound-based connections are almost invisible on the page and obvious in the ear.