How is the unlimited version different?
The daily board is the same for everyone and changes once a day. Here each board is picked at random from our pool of a thousand, so you can play as many as you like. The rules do not change: sixteen words, four groups, four mistakes.
Do unlimited games save my results?
No. Unlimited boards are for practice, so they do not save and they do not touch your daily record. Reload the page or tap New puzzle at any time for a fresh board.
How can practice make you better?
Grouping puzzles reward habits. After twenty boards you start to spot the usual tricks: a word that hides inside a longer one, a list with one extra member, a phrase where every word comes before the same word. The more boards you see, the faster those tricks jump out.
Practice drills to try
- No mistakes. Only submit when you are sure. Count how many boards in a row you can clear without a single wrong guess.
- Purple first. Try to find the wordplay group before any other. It is the hardest habit to build.
- No hints. Play ten boards without tapping the hint button, then compare with ten where you use it.
- Name the decoy. Before you submit, name the word you think is trying to trick you, and where it seems to fit.
What does solving a board look like?
Here is a real board from our pool, solved one step at a time. The sixteen words were:
PEACH, DECADE, CALLISTO, SPONGE, APPLE, ERA, GANYMEDE, CRAB, KIWI, SECOND, DEIMOS, CUP, LIME, MOMENT, TITAN, PAN
- Spot the easy list. PEACH, APPLE, KIWI and LIME are all fruits. That is the yellow group, and it locks in first.
- Find the next clear idea. DECADE, ERA, SECOND and MOMENT are all spans of time. Green group done.
- Use what you know. CALLISTO, GANYMEDE, DEIMOS and TITAN are moons of other planets. That one needs some space facts, so it is the blue group.
- The last four make the wordplay group. SPONGE, CRAB, CUP and PAN look random, but each one comes before CAKE. Sponge cake, crab cake, cupcake, pancake.
Notice the trap in that board. CRAB could look like a sea creature, and LIME could look like a color. Neither fits a group of four on this board, which is how you know they belong somewhere else.
Who is the endless mode for?
It suits anyone who finishes the daily board and wants more. It also works well for classrooms, since every board is a short lesson in sorting and word links. And because nothing saves, Connections Unlimited is a good place to try bold guesses you would never risk on the daily board.
How many different boards are there?
Our pool holds a thousand boards built from the categories we wrote. Every category shows up about twenty times, but always with a different mix of words and different neighbors, so boards rarely feel the same.
At a glance
| Words on the board | 16, in four hidden groups of four |
| Mistakes allowed | 4 |
| Puzzles in our pool | 1,000 |
| Categories we wrote | 188 |
| Hints | Yes, one group name at a time |
| Cost | Free, no account |
What do the four colors mean?
Each board has one group from each level. The color tells you how hard that group was meant to be.
| Color | Level | Categories | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straightforward | 45 | Fruits, Vegetables, Dog breeds | |
| Medium | 51 | Things with keys, Things with shells, Things with rings | |
| Tricky | 44 | Greek letters, Star signs, Greek gods | |
| Wordplay | 48 | ___BALL, FIRE___, ___HOUSE |
How many words fit more than one group?
In our bank, 225 words belong to two or more categories. These are the words that trick people. A board only shows such a word when its other groups are not on the same board, so every puzzle still has one clear answer. Some examples:
- Cricket fits Sports and Insects.
- Tesla fits Car brands and Scientists.
- Salsa fits Dances and Mexican dishes.
- Sole fits Fish and Parts of a shoe.
- Comet fits Things in the sky and Things with tails and Santa's reindeer.