Word Chain

Eight words. Every neighbouring pair makes a compound or a phrase — BALL GAME, GAME ON. The first word is given in full; the rest show only their first letter. Type your way down.

SNOW · BALL · PARK · BENCH · MARK · UP

One chain a day

Everyone gets the same daily challenge. Practice draws from the rest of the bank and never touches the day's chain, so you can warm up without spoiling it.

The clock is the score

There are no points. The clock starts when you press Play and stops on the last word. A wrong guess costs you only the beat it takes to read the reply — so guess freely.

The lifeline

Throw yourself one. Each tap reveals one more letter of the word you are on, and adds its cost to the clock straight away: +15s, then +25s, then +40s. The price resets on every new word, so one lifeline on three words is cheaper than three on one.

Near misses

Only the authored word advances the chain, but a guess that makes a real pair is told so rather than buzzed. Spelling slips are forgiven. Singular and plural both count, except on the rare link where they are genuinely different words.