7 Little Words

About 7 Little Words

Each 7 Little Words puzzle has seven clues on one side and a tray of 20 tiles on the other. A tile holds a short group of letters, and every answer is made by joining two or more of them in the right order. Because each tile is used exactly once across the whole puzzle, solving the easy clues leaves fewer tiles to try on the hard ones, and the last answer often falls out of what remains.

Blue Ox Family Games has published the game since 2011. On the official website the daily page offers five puzzles for the day, picked from a row of numbered buttons, playable free in the browser with ads; making a free account lets you play every puzzle there. The 7 Little Words and More app on iPhone and Android carries the daily puzzles alongside the studio's other games such as Hootle, Red Herring and Monkey Wrench, with a subscription or paid packs for the large back catalogue. A separate 7 Little Words app keeps a daily puzzle and a streak.

The clues are short and plain, more like a quick crossword than a cryptic one, and a hint button reveals a tile when you are stuck. It suits players who like crosswords but want something that can be finished in a few minutes, and anagram fans who prefer working with chunks of letters to single ones.

How to play 7 Little Words

1. Open the day's puzzles and pick one of the numbered puzzles.
2. Read the seven clues; each shows how many letters its answer has.
3. Join letter-group tiles in order to spell an answer, and drop it on its clue.
4. Each tile is used once, so solved answers remove their tiles from the tray.
5. Use a hint to reveal a tile if you are stuck, and finish all seven answers.

Screenshots

Tips

• Start with the clue you are surest of; every solved answer shrinks the pool of tiles.
• Match the letter count first: longer answers take more tiles, so count letters before you try a join.
• Look for tiles that can only start a word, such as ones beginning with a consonant pair, and tiles with endings like ING or TION.
• Save the hardest clue for last; the leftover tiles often spell it.

Questions