Wordfellows

How to play

The board shows a set of word tiles. Hidden among them are groups that share something: they might all be birds, all go before the word fish, or all mean happy. Your job is to find every group.

1. Tap the tiles you think belong together. Each group on a board has the same number of words, and the board tells you how many to pick.
2. Tap Group them. If you are right, the tiles join into a coloured band that names the link and explains it.
3. If you are wrong, nothing is lost but a little pride. When all but one of your picks belong together, the game says you are close.
4. When only one group is left, the game places it for you, because it can only be that one.

Here is what three solved groups look like on the very first board:

Boards grow as you go

The journey starts small so the rules click quickly, then the boards get bigger and the links get subtler.

Stars and hints

There is no timer and no limit on guesses. Stars only reflect how cleanly you solved a board: three stars for up to one wrong guess, two stars for up to three, and one star after that. You can replay any level to improve your stars.

A hint reveals the name of one group still on the board, so you know what to look for without being told which tiles. You start with three hints, earn a free one every fifth new level and one for each daily puzzle you solve. Where the game offers it, you can also watch a short video for a hint, but you never have to.

The kinds of groups you will meet

Wordfellows draws on a library of more than 800 categories written for the game. They come in five flavours:

• Things that are the thing. Plain sets such as dog commands (sit, heel, beg, fetch) or kinds of tea (matcha, oolong, jasmine, peppermint).
• Things that share a trait. Hats with a brim, kitchen things with a spout, things that hold money. The members are different objects with one feature in common.
• Words that mean the same. Words for shy (coy, bashful, reserved, demure) or words for an edge (brim, fringe, verge, brink).
• General knowledge. Kinds of cloud, star signs, punctuation marks, units of weight. Nothing obscure: if you finished school, you have met them.
• Wordplay. Words that go before or after another word (tail, drain and wind all go before pipe), compound words, hidden words, rhymes and sound-alikes. These are the groups that make you laugh when they click.

Tips for tricky boards

• Start with the most specific link. "Kinds of cloud" can only be a few words; "things in a kitchen" could be many. Solve the narrow group first and the wide one gets easier.
• Look for the word that fits twice. Boards are built with decoys: pound could be a unit of weight or a word for hitting. When a word fits two ideas, hold it back until the other tiles decide for you.
• Say the words out loud. Rhymes and sound-alikes hide in plain sight on the screen and jump out when you hear them.
• Try putting a word before or after each tile. If fire, star and sword are on the board, test them with fish.
• Shuffle. Moving the tiles around breaks the patterns your eyes have settled on.
• Use "so close" as a clue. When the game says all but one of your picks belong together, swap one tile at a time.

The daily puzzle

Every day there is one new board of four groups of four, the same for everyone who plays. Solving it earns a free hint, and you can share your result as a little grid of coloured squares that shows how you got there without giving away the answers. Missed a day? Past daily puzzles stay playable in the archive.

Fifteen places on the journey

The 300 levels are split into fifteen chapters of twenty. Each chapter is a painted place you reach as you solve:

1. Morning Meadow
2. Riverbend
3. Orchard Lane
4. Harbor Lights
5. Lantern Hill
6. Willow Creek
7. Lavender Fields
8. Cedar Woods
9. Seaside Cliffs
10. Old Town
11. Misty Peaks
12. Autumn Vale
13. Snowfield
14. Starlit Lake
15. Home Shore

How every board gets exactly one answer

A good grouping puzzle is only fair if there is one way to solve it. For each category, the game knows every common word that fits it, not just the ones on the board. A word only goes on a board when it belongs to none of the other groups there, and two categories that overlap never share a board. Then people read every assembled board and flag anything that could be argued two ways, and those words are swapped out.

Questions

Is it free?

Yes. The browser game is free and shows a short ad between some levels, never during a puzzle.

Do I need an account?

No. Your progress, stars and hints are saved in your browser on this device. Clearing your browser's site data resets them.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes, it runs in any modern phone or computer browser. Apps for iPhone and Android are on the way.

Can I play in dark mode or with bigger text?

Yes. Open the settings in the game to choose light, dark or automatic, and one of three text sizes.

Play Wordfellows