Sixteen words, four hidden groups of four. Pick four that belong together and submit, but watch out for words that seem to fit two groups. Four mistakes and it’s over. Play today’s puzzle or random ones, alone or racing friends, in 11 languages.
Sixteen words hide four groups of four. Tap four you think share something, then Submit.
Right: the group shows its name and colour. Three of four right: “One away!”.
Four mistakes and the game is over. Shuffle the words when you’re stuck.
Harder groups score more (100 to 250). Solving adds a bonus, more with no mistakes and a quick finish. In a room, most groups win.
What is GroupBoo?
GroupBoo is our word groups puzzle. Sixteen words lie on the board, and they hide four groups of four: four words that are all trees, say, or four that can each go before “fish”. Pick four words you think belong together and press Submit. If they share a group, they lift off the board into a coloured band with the group’s name. If not, it is a mistake, and you only have four to spend.
The catch is that the words are chosen to mislead. A word often seems to fit two groups, and the hardest of the four is usually wordplay. Find three groups and the last four fall into place by themselves.
A daily word puzzle: group the words, free in your browser
Sorting words into hidden groups is a much-loved word association puzzle: a four by four word game where the fun is spotting the link before the decoys catch you out. GroupBoo gives you a new puzzle every day, the same sixteen words for everyone, plus as many random puzzles as you like. Its categories are written for each of its eleven word languages, not translated, so a Turkish or a Polish puzzle plays with that language’s own words and wordplay.
It is free in your browser, with no sign-up and nothing to install. Each word language has its own leaderboard, with Today, Week, Month and All time views, and in Duo and Group rooms friends join with a code or a link and race the same puzzle. GroupBoo comes in light and dark and works with a mouse, a keyboard or a touch screen.
Who it suits and what it trains
GroupBoo suits anyone who likes crosswords, quizzes and word games and has five minutes for a daily word puzzle over a coffee. It trains vocabulary and lateral thinking: seeing one word in several ways – a bat that flies and a bat you hit a ball with – and holding back until you are sure. Playing in another word language is a good way to practise one you are learning.
Good to know
Each of the four levels has its own colour and mark: Easy groups are apricot with a dot, Medium rose with a triangle, Hard aqua with a square and Tricky graphite with a star, so nobody needs to tell the colours apart. Today’s puzzle changes at midnight UTC, and each word language has its own, one go each. A game left half played comes back where it was after a reload. Shuffle moves the words around as often as you like and costs nothing.
Guess the secret word by its meaning. Every word you try gets a number: how close it is in meaning to the secret, among 20,000 words. #1 is the word itself, so follow the warm ones. Play today’s word or random ones, alone or racing friends, in 11 languages.
A lit bomb goes round the table. When it reaches you, type a word that holds the letters on it — quick, before it blows. Lose all your lives and you are out; the last one standing wins.
An event comes up without its year: the Moon landing, the first Olympics, the Eiffel Tower. Slot it into your timeline before, between or after the cards you have. Three wrong guesses and the game is over.
