Connections unlimited: sixteen words, four groups

Below the puzzle, pick the difficulty and how many mistakes you allow yourself: four, as in the original, or unlimited for a relaxed game.

The rules in thirty seconds

• Sixteen words, four groups of four: each word belongs to exactly one group.
• Tap four words, then submit. A right group moves to the top, with its name.
• Four mistakes, and the puzzle reveals its groups. “So close” means three out of four.
• Watch out for traps: some words seem to fit two groups.

Puzzles built on demand

Every puzzle comes from the families of our game Clan: about three hundred in English, written for English. The generator picks four at random, takes four words from each, then checks, against our lists, that the sixteen words can be sorted only one way. Two related families, like birds and birds of prey, never meet in the same puzzle. It all takes a few milliseconds, which is why there is no waiting.

Three difficulty levels

• Easy: four groups from different areas, no traps. A warm-up.
• Medium: one trap word per puzzle, which two groups could claim, and sometimes a hidden rule.
• Tough: a hidden rule in every puzzle, two traps, and neighbouring groups (two kinds of animals, say).

A trap is, for instance, JAGUAR in a puzzle that holds both big cats and car makes: only one of the two groups can take it, and the rest of the puzzle tells you which.

Hidden rules are not about what the words mean, but about the words themselves: a hidden animal (SCATTER, COWARDLY, BEARING), words that sound like “right” (RIGHT, WRITE, RITE, WRIGHT), or what comes before “ball” (FOOT, BASE, SNOW).

Puzzle of the day

“Puzzle of the day” serves the same puzzle to everyone, at medium difficulty, and a new one every day at midnight. Each language has its own. Once it is done, “Share my result” sends your attempts as little coloured squares, without giving the words away, with a link to the same puzzle.

Four mistakes, or unlimited

By default, the fourth mistake ends the puzzle and reveals the groups that were left. With “Mistakes allowed: Unlimited”, you can search as long as you like; the final message still counts your mistakes. Trying the same four words twice only counts once.

Stuck? The hint

“Hint” colours two words from the same group, in the shade that group will take once found. The next hint moves on to another group; once each has two, it adds a third. It never submits anything for you, and the final message notes how many hints you took.

Connections, Only Connect and Clan

Sixteen clues to sort into four groups of four, with traps: the format has been on British television since 2008, in the “Connecting Wall” of the BBC quiz Only Connect. The New York Times made it famous with Connections, launched in beta on 12 June 2023. This page has no connection with the New York Times; the word “Connections” is only used here to say what kind of game this is. The full story is in our guide to word grouping games.

Fancy something different? In the game Clan, you sort the board row by row instead of submitting four words, and families nest: citrus fruits, once together, become a tile that joins the fruit. A hundred levels per language, with meerkats.

Frequently asked questions