You're given 16 words arranged in a 4×4 grid. Your goal is to sort them into 4 groups of 4 — each group shares a secret connection. Every word belongs to exactly one group.
Tap any 4 words you think share a connection, then press Submit. If you're right, those words are removed and the category is revealed with its colour. If you're wrong, you lose one of your 4 lives. "One Away" means exactly 3 of your 4 picks were correct — you're close!
Each category has a difficulty colour: Yellow (straightforward), Green (a bit tricky), Blue (getting clever), and Purple (very tricky). Start with the one you're most confident about.
Use Shuffle to rearrange the grid for a fresh perspective — sometimes seeing words in a new order reveals the pattern. Deselect All clears your current selection.
Higher difficulties select puzzles with more misleading overlaps and abstract connections. On Beginner, categories are obvious groupings. On Cyborg, words deliberately seem like they could fit multiple groups — you need lateral thinking.
Every day at midnight, a new puzzle appears — the same puzzle for all players worldwide. Complete it to build your daily streak. Share your result to compare with friends!
Connections ZAP is a word association puzzle inspired by the popular NYT Connections format. Sort 16 words into 4 hidden categories before running out of guesses. Each puzzle is hand-crafted with misleading overlaps to challenge your pattern recognition. With 540 original puzzles across 4 difficulty tiers, 7 AI difficulty levels, and a daily challenge, there's always a fresh puzzle to solve.
Play free in your browser — no download, no sign-up. Challenge friends with a shared puzzle link and compare how many mistakes each of you made.