The word desk

Two Connections alternatives, printed daily

We print two Connections alternatives every day. Looplink hides four groups of four, except four link words belong to two groups at once, chaining the categories into a closed loop. Categlorious deals four categories of three that all share one glorious word. Free in your browser, new puzzles at midnight US Eastern, no signup.

The short version

If you love sorting words into groups but the format has started to feel routine, we print two twists on it daily. Looplink overlaps the groups, so every deduction has to survive its neighbors; Categlorious hides one glorious word that belongs to every category. Play today’s Looplink or today’s Categlorious.

01 Why look for a Connections alternative

The New York Times’ Connections is the puzzle that made word-grouping a daily habit: sixteen words, four secret categories, and the moment a red herring finally declares itself. Once you’ve played it long enough, though, you learn its rhythms. The purple group is a wordplay trick, the traps run in pairs, and the solve becomes procedure. A good alternative keeps the sorting pleasure and breaks the procedure.

02 How Looplink compares to Connections

Looplink starts from the familiar shape, four hidden groups of four, tap four words that share a theme and submit, then tilts it. Four of the words are links: each belongs to two groups at once, so the categories do not sit in tidy boxes. They chain together into a closed loop, each group sharing a word with the one beside it. The word you were sure anchored one group may be the very tile that completes the group next door. You get four mistakes before the day is over, and the scoring rewards nerve: bonuses for playing the link words early and for cracking the hardest group first, with difficulty graded yellow up to purple, the way you’d expect.

03 Categlorious, the second Connections alternative we print

Categlorious is a full Connections alternative in its own right. Nine words hide four categories of exactly three, and one of the nine is the glorious word: it belongs to all four. Find a category and it locks in its color. Find them all and the glorious word slides to the center, taking the color of each category it sits in. You get four wrong guesses, same as Connections, but the solve turns on a different question. Connections asks which words go together; Categlorious also asks which one word goes with everything. If Looplink’s overlapping groups sound like a headache before breakfast, start here. Finish both and the grouping itch is well and truly scratched for the day.

04 Free, no account, new at midnight

Both games are free with no subscription and no account required; they run in your browser on phone or desktop with nothing to download. Fresh puzzles are published each day, the same for everyone, and reset at midnight US Eastern. For more sorting and deduction, try the anagram grid of Jumble, browse all the daily word games, or see the whole lineup on the Greatest Games homepage.

05 Connections alternative FAQ

We print two daily. Looplink is the harder one: four hidden groups of four, where four link words each belong to two groups at once. Categlorious is the friendlier one: four categories of three words that all share one glorious word. Both are free and need no account.
A daily word-grouping puzzle with nine words: four categories of three, where one glorious word belongs to all four. Find the categories, spot the word they share, and survive on four wrong guesses. When you find it, the glorious word slides to the center and takes on every category's color.
In Connections every word belongs to exactly one group. In Looplink four of the words do double duty, each sitting in two groups, so the word you are sure anchors one category might be the tile that completes the one next door.
Four. Each mistake also costs 15 points off your score, and there are bonuses for guessing the link words early and for solving the hardest group first.
Yes. Looplink is completely free in your browser, with no subscription and no account required.
Yes. A fresh Looplink is published every day and resets at midnight US Eastern. Everyone untangles the same loop that day.

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