Word Groups: a free daily word connections puzzle
Word Groups is a calm but crafty daily puzzle served in a little Japanese tea house. Sixteen words, four hidden groups. Can you see what links them? Some groups are simple, like fruits or planets; others hide wordplay, like words that go before BOARD or animals hidden inside words. Watch out for red herrings: many words seem to fit more than one group. You can make four mistakes. Play the daily puzzle, explore the archive, and share a spoiler-free colour grid with friends.
How to play Word Groups
- Read all sixteen words and look for connections between them.
- Tap four words that you think belong to the same group.
- Press Submit. A correct group is revealed with its category and colour.
- A wrong guess costs one of your four mistakes; "One away" means three words were right.
- Find all four groups to solve the puzzle, then share your colour grid.
Use Shuffle to rearrange the remaining tiles. Seeing words in a new order often reveals a connection you missed. Deselect all clears your selection. On a computer, press Enter to submit four selected words and Esc to clear.
Types of groups you will meet
| Colour | Typical group | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 🟨 Yellow | A plain category | Fruits: apple, mango, peach, plum |
| 🟩 Green | A narrower category | Kitchen tools: whisk, ladle, grater, spatula |
| 🟦 Blue | A shared property or a less obvious set | Things you can crack: egg, code, joke, safe |
| 🟪 Purple | Wordplay | ___fly: butter, dragon, fire, horse |
Wordplay groups come in many shapes: words that can follow or precede the same word (firefly, keyboard), words hiding smaller words (carm, tulip), homophones, anagrams, or words that are also names of countries, brands or famous characters.
Strategy: how to beat the red herrings
- Find the trap first. If you spot five words that seem to fit one category, one of them must belong somewhere else. That fifth word is usually the key to another group.
- Start with the group you are surest about, but only when you can name the connection precisely. "Kitchen tools" is better than "things in a house".
- Think about other meanings. A BOXER can be a dog, a fighter or underwear; a BRIDGE can be a card game, a structure or part of your nose.
- Look inside the words. If a group is not obvious, check for hidden words, shared prefixes and suffixes, or a word that could come before or after each one.
- Use "One away" wisely. When you hear it, swap only one word. Changing two at once wastes the information.
- Save the purple group for last. Once three groups are found, the last four words must belong together, even if you cannot yet see why.
Sharing and challenges
When you finish, the game creates a grid of coloured squares, one row per guess, that shows how you solved the puzzle without giving away a single word. Share it with friends, or tap Challenge a friend to send a link to the same puzzle together with your number of mistakes. The archive lets latecomers play earlier puzzles too.
More free word games: Word Hive, Word Hunt, Word Search, Hangman and Ninja Wordly.
Frequently asked questions
Is Word Groups free?
Yes. Word Groups is free to play in any browser on phones, tablets and computers. There is a new puzzle every day and an archive of earlier puzzles.
How do I play?
You see sixteen words. Select four words that share a connection and press Submit. If they form a group, the group and its category are revealed. Find all four groups before you make four mistakes.
What does "One away" mean?
It means three of the four words you selected belong to the same group, but one does not. Swap one word and try again.
What do the colours mean?
Yellow is the most straightforward group, then green, then blue, and purple is usually the trickiest, often involving wordplay such as hidden words or words that go before or after another word.
Is this the same as NYT Connections?
Word Groups uses the same popular grouping idea, but it is an independent free game with its own original puzzles written for Util.Ninja. It is not affiliated with The New York Times.
Can I play older puzzles?
Yes. Tap the calendar button to open the archive and play any earlier daily puzzle. Your results are saved on your device.
Is there a hint?
Yes. Once per puzzle you can reveal the name of one category. Your shared result shows a light bulb if you used it.
How do I share my result without spoilers?
After the puzzle, tap Share. You get a grid of coloured squares showing your guesses, without any of the words, so friends can play the same puzzle unspoiled.
Can I challenge a friend?
Yes. Tap Challenge a friend to create a link to the same puzzle. Your friend sees how many mistakes you made and tries to do better.
Is it good for the brain?
Grouping puzzles train categorisation, vocabulary and lateral thinking: you must consider several meanings of each word and resist the obvious-looking trap.