Show the quick tour

The idea. Every day starts with one word, the same for everyone. Type a word that goes with it, then a word that goes with that one, and so on: seven links, eight words.

Scoring a link. Each link is scored out of 100 by how strongly the two words go together: a phrase (ball game), a compound (ball + room), an opposite (up, down), a word that often follows, or a word people associate. Weaker connections score less; no connection scores nothing.

Flair. An uncommon word that fits earns up to 25 points on top: ball → bearings beats ball → game. Everyday little words (a, the, my) are capped at 50 and earn no flair.

Phrase bonus. When your last three words together make one known phrase, title or name (beach → blanket → bingo, hot → cross → buns), that link counts as a strong link (at least 85) and earns +20 more; four words that make one (red → hot → chili → peppers) are worth +40 in all. Words that only overlap as pairs (missile → launch → pad) don't count.

Rules. No word twice, including plurals and other forms of a word already in the chain. Names count only when they make a phrase with the word before (donkey → kong). Misspellings cost nothing: fix them and try again.

After the chain. See what else would have linked well from each word, and ask for a chain of strong links from your first word to your last.

Sound. Links and the finished chain make sounds. The 🔊 button at the top turns them off and on for every IT Games game on this device.

Word links come from the Datamuse word-finding engine, built on Google Books and Wiktionary.