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.