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Verbal Reasoning

Word Grid Puzzle

Trace path-connected dictionary words through partitioned letter grids under time constraints.

Word Grid

Step 1 of 4
Every letter on the board belongs to one hidden word, and the words fit together to cover the whole grid with nothing left over. Your job is to find a way to cut the grid into words.
One grid uses one word length. This one is made of three-letter words: eight of them, filling all twenty-four squares.
Word Grid Puzzle Example Diagram
The ring marks where each word starts. Trace a word by putting your finger on its first letter and dragging through the rest.

Longer words, bigger grids

Step 2 of 4
Finish a grid and the next one is harder: the grid grows and the words get longer. Four-letter words look like this.
Word Grid Puzzle Example Diagram
And five-letter words like this. A word can bend as often as it likes, so long as it never crosses itself.
Word Grid Puzzle Example Diagram

What counts as a word

Step 3 of 4
Move up, down, left or right — never diagonally — and spell the word forwards. The middle drag below spells OAT, but it steps diagonally, so it is not accepted.
Word Grid Puzzle Example Diagram
You do not have to find the words the grid was built from. Any words that cover the grid completely are a correct solution, and any word in the dictionary counts.
Made a mistake? Drag your finger back across a word you have laid down and it comes off. Two of its squares have to be crossed, so a stray tap cannot undo your work.
A square that no remaining word can reach turns grey. It is a warning that the rest of the grid can no longer be completed, so something already placed has to come off.

Scoring

Step 4 of 4
You have four minutes for the whole session, however many grids you get through. Every word left on the board scores, and longer words on bigger grids are worth more.
Covering a grid completely adds a bonus worth a third of the whole grid, and moves you up to the next grid. When the time runs out, whatever you have found still counts.
Taking a word off gives its points back, so there is nothing to gain by laying the same word down again and again.
If a grid cannot be finished, "I give up" deals another one of the same size. The words you already found stay on your score, but there is no bonus and the grids stop growing until you finish one.
The words are English. After the clock stops you can tap any word that was hidden in the last grid to read what it means.

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