How to solve Categories puzzles: a calm method for sorting sixteen words

To solve a Categories puzzle, do not try to find all four groups at once. Find the one you are surest of, lock it in, and let the twelve words that remain make the next group easier. You have 4 slips, so there is room to learn.

Start with the surest group

Look for four words that clearly belong together, and check that none of the other twelve fits just as well. If you can name the link in a few words, submit it. A group found early takes four words, and a lot of doubt, off the board.

This is the kind of group to look for first: cow, goat, sheep, pig. A plain, everyday category like this is the easiest to spot.

Beware of the word that fits twice

A word often seems to belong to two groups. Count them: if five words fit one link, one of the five belongs somewhere else. Settle the other groups first and the extra word finds its place. In Gridarium every word belongs to exactly one group, so there is always one way to sort all sixteen.

Look for a missing word

When the words share no meaning, try putting the same word before or after each of them. They may all complete the same phrase.

Here the blank goes in front of ball: basket, foot, base, soft. Not one of them is a ball on its own, but each makes one.

Read the letters and listen to the sounds

Some groups are about how words are written or said, not what they mean: a silent letter, a hidden word, words that read the same backwards, words that sound like something else. If four words have nothing in common in meaning, say them aloud and look at their letters.

The first group is made of words with a silent letter at the start: knee, knife, knot, knight. The second is made of words that read the same backwards: level, radar, civic, refer.

Use the slips, the shuffle and the hint

You have 4 slips (a wrong guess uses one), and trying the same four words twice costs nothing. If you are told you are one away, swap one word, not all four. Shuffle rearranges the words and often shows a link your eyes had skipped. A hint shows the title of the easiest group left, never a word, for a little XP.

The four tiers

Every puzzle has one group of each tier. The tier is shown by a colour, a shape and a name, so you never need to tell colours apart.

• Straightforward: a plain category, found by looking.
• Moderate: a looser link, or a word that completes a phrase.
• Tricky: a link that needs some knowledge or a second look.
• Devious: word play: letters, sounds, hidden words.