Association is a free daily word-grouping puzzle. Sixteen words hide four groups of four, and each group shares a connection. Find all four groups before you make four mistakes.
How do you play Association?
- Look over the 16 words. Tap four that you think belong together. Selected words turn dark.
- Tap Submit. If all four share a connection, they lock into a colored row and the category name appears.
- A wrong guess costs one of your four mistakes. If three of your four belong together, the game tells you you're "One away".
- Tap Shuffle to rearrange the words left on the board, or Deselect to clear your picks. On a keyboard, Enter submits and Escape deselects.
- Find all four groups to win. If you run out of mistakes, the remaining groups are shown.
Guessing the same four words twice costs nothing. The game just tells you you've already tried them.
What do the colors mean?
Each group has a difficulty, shown by its color once you solve it. Green is the easiest, then blue, then purple, and the fourth group is the hardest. The categories are everyday ones, like "Words for a flop" or "Popcorn ___", rather than trivia you'd have to look up.
How do decoys work?
Some words fit more than one group, on purpose. A board might have five words that look like fish, but only four of them belong in the fish group. The fifth is part of something else.
Say the board has BASS, PIKE, PERCH and TROUT, plus DRUM, PIANO and CELLO. BASS fits the fish and it fits the instruments. If you lock it into the fish group too early, the instruments come up one short.
Tips for solving cleanly
- Solve the clearest group first. Look for a group where every word fits and no word fits anywhere else. Each group you lock in removes options, and the decoys get easier to spot.
- Count the candidates. If five words fit a category, one of them belongs somewhere else. Work out which before you submit.
- Read "One away" carefully. Three of your four are right. Swap one word, not all of them.
- Shuffle when you're stuck. A new arrangement breaks up pairs your eye keeps grouping.
- Save the hardest group for last. By then it's the four words left over, and it often solves itself.
How is Association scored?
There's no points total. A win with no mistakes is a perfect solve, and your results also show how many mistakes you made and how long you took. A win extends your streak, and running out of mistakes resets it.
There's no leaderboard for Association yet.
How do you share your result?
The Share button copies your time and a grid of colored squares, one row per guess, in the order you made them. It shows how you did without giving away a single word. If you run out of mistakes, a ❌ goes in front of your time:
Association #21 / 1:12 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟩🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟧🟧🟧🟧 perdiem.games/association
On a phone, Share opens your share sheet.
Is Association like Connections?
Same idea: sixteen words and four groups of four. The difference is the categories, which lean everyday rather than obscure. Association isn't affiliated with the New York Times or its games.
Common questions
Are there hints?
No. Shuffle and Deselect are the only helpers, plus "One away" when you're close.
Can I play past puzzles?
Yes, back to the first puzzle on October 19, 2026. Open them from the week strip on your results screen.
Who writes the puzzles?
Every puzzle is written by hand, with real category names. They aren't generated by a machine.
Do I need an account?
No. Association is free and runs in your browser. Your streak and stats are saved in the browser you play in.