Word games

A daily five-letter puzzle that flowers as you solve it.

A daily grouping puzzle: find the four secret fours among sixteen, in the Connections vein.

Hangman by candlelight: find the word before the candle burns away.

A daily word search drawn from an illuminated page.

A five-by-five crossword, clued and gilded. Quick to start, satisfying to finish.

The hive of letters: gather words of four or more from seven wax cells, every one using the golden centre. Somewhere in the comb hides a word that uses all seven. A new comb every day.

Lewis Carroll’s parlour game of 1879, kept nightly: turn the top word into the bottom one, changing a single letter at each rung, every rung a true word. Par is the shortest ladder the whole dictionary allows; match it and the night is flawless. Ask the tailor if you must.

The classic parlour word-duel against the Fiddler: the fragment grows one letter at a time, and whoever completes a word of four or more letters loses the round on the spot. Think the fragment begins nothing? Challenge, and the house judges it against its own book of 74,947 words; a failed call costs the round. Openers alternate; first to three rounds takes the duel. Solo or live at the open tables.

The old slate game made a fair fight, against the Ale-Wife: rounds come in pairs, and the setter picks the cruellest of four dealt words, hint shown, mercy optional. Every wrong call is a mark, eight marks build the gallows for a round score of ten, and the fewest marks across the pairs takes the duel. Level after five pairs is a drawn duel. Solo or live at the open tables.

The classic pencil pastime, inked nightly: a twelve-by-twelve field of letters hiding twelve words from a themed list, laid in all eight directions and sharing letters where they please. Drag first letter to last to claim them. Every night deals a fresh themed field, the same for everyone, with endless fresh fields besides; the fastest full clears go on the community board.