Sixteen words. Four hidden groups. And at least one word that looks like it belongs in two places at once. That’s the fun of Connected Words – and also, if we’re honest, the frustration.
This guide explains how the game works, how the colours tell you what’s easy and what’s tricky, and how to avoid the traps the puzzles set for you.
How it works
You start with a grid of 16 words. Hidden among them are four groups of four words that share something in common. Your job is to find all four groups.
Tap four words you think belong together, then press Submit. If you’re right, they lift out of the grid into a coloured bar with the group’s name. If you’re wrong, you lose one of your four mistakes. Use them all up and the game shows you the answers.
There are a couple of helpful touches:
- If three of your four words are right, the game tells you you’re “One away…”. It still counts as a mistake, but now you know you’re close.
- If you try the same four words twice, it just says “Already guessed!” and doesn’t take a mistake.
- Shuffle mixes up the grid, and Deselect all clears your choices.
What the colours mean
Every puzzle has one group at each level of difficulty, and each level has its own colour:
| Colour | Difficulty | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| 🟨 Yellow | Easiest | A plain, everyday category |
| 🟩 Green | Medium | Still straightforward, but a bit more specific |
| 🟦 Blue | Harder | Needs some general knowledge, or thinking sideways |
| 🟪 Purple | Hardest | Wordplay – the link is about the words, not what they mean |
Purple groups are where the real cleverness lives. They’re often a fill-in-the-blank, like words that can all go in front of “print”. They can also be words hiding a smaller word inside them, anagrams, or words that sound like something else.
Let’s try one together
Here’s a practice puzzle we made up for this guide – it isn’t in the game. Have a look at the sixteen words:
| SANDWICH | LOCK | ADVANCE | TICKET |
| PLATFORM | CRISPS | FLUTE | SCARF |
| MAP | ABUSE | YOGHURT | BARRIER |
| VOCABULARY | TYPEWRITER | APPLE | TIMETABLE |
Yellow first. SANDWICH, CRISPS, YOGHURT and APPLE jump out – they’re all things you’d pack in a lunchbox. That’s an easy four.
Now the trap. PLATFORM, TICKET, BARRIER and TIMETABLE are all things at a railway station – but so is MAP. That’s five words for a group of four. When that happens, one of them belongs somewhere else. So before you submit, look for where MAP might fit instead.
Blue. LOCK, FLUTE and TYPEWRITER seem random, until you notice they all have keys. And a map has a key too! So MAP goes here, and the station group is PLATFORM, TICKET, BARRIER and TIMETABLE.
Purple. That leaves SCARF, ABUSE, ADVANCE and VOCABULARY. They have nothing in common by meaning – so look inside them. SCARF, ABUSE, ADVANCE and VOCABULARY. They’re hiding vehicles!
If you’d rushed in with MAP in the station group, you’d have seen “One away…” and lost a mistake. Spotting the fifth word first saved you.
Tips for solving
Look for the red herrings. The puzzles love a word that fits two groups. If you’ve found five words for one category, stop – one of them is needed elsewhere. Work out which one before you press Submit.
Solve the easy group first – but carefully. Getting yellow out of the way leaves twelve words, which makes everything else easier to see. Just make sure none of your yellow words could also be part of a trickier group.
Try the blanks. If a handful of words seem totally unrelated, test common words before or after them, like ___print, ___bag, sea___ or rain___. Fill-in-the-blank links are the most common kind of purple group in the game.
Read the words, not just the meaning. For leftover words, look inside them for a smaller hidden word. Say them out loud to catch sound-alikes. Check whether the letters rearrange into something else.
Think of double meanings. Many blue groups use a second meaning. Things with keys, things with a bark, things with a spine – a word that seems out of place usually has another meaning you haven’t thought of yet.
Shuffle often. Words sitting next to each other can trick your brain into linking them. Shuffling breaks those false pairings and helps you see new ones.
Use “One away” as a clue. If you’re told you’re one away, don’t just swap a word at random. Ask which of your four is the odd one out, and which unused word fits better. You’ve got four mistakes, so treat each one as information.
Save the last group for free. Once you’ve found three groups, the final four words solve themselves – there’s nothing left to go wrong.
Sharing your result
When you finish, the game shows a little grid of coloured squares – one row for each guess you made, with each square showing which group that word really belonged to. A perfect game is four neat rows of solid colour. Press Share results to copy it, then paste it to a friend to show how you did without spoiling the answers.
Questions people ask
Is it free?
Yes, completely. No account or sign-up needed.
How many puzzles are there?
There are 250. When you finish one, press New puzzle for another you haven’t played yet.
Is my progress saved?
Yes. If you close the page mid-puzzle, your solved groups and mistakes are still there when you come back on the same device.
Can I replay a puzzle?
Yes. Press Play again at the end to start the same puzzle over with the words shuffled.
Does it matter which order I find the groups in?
No. You can find them in any order. The colours just tell you how tricky each group was meant to be.
Over to you
Now you know to watch for that sneaky fifth word, open Connected Words and see if you can get a perfect game. If you enjoy spotting hidden patterns, Cipher Desk is a great next challenge.
Good luck!