Catalogues

About Catalogues

Catalogues is a daily ordering puzzle from The New Yorker, built on an idea by Adam Wagner. It sits in the magazine's puzzles and games section beside its crosswords and Shuffalo, and in the Play section of The New Yorker app. Every puzzle has its own dated page, so you can go back and play days you missed.

Each day you get seven items and a title. The title is the main clue: it usually hints at both what the items have in common and the property they are sorted by. Seven Vice-Presidents might run in the order they served; seven boxing divisions might run from lightest to heaviest. The order can be by date, size, number, position or the alphabet, and it changes from day to day.

You arrange the items and submit, with five tries to get the whole order right. If the title leaves you stuck, optional clues help you find the theme.

The puzzle mixes general knowledge with a bit of wordplay, so it suits players of Chronle and other timeline games who also like reading a clever headline. A day takes a few minutes, and a wrong guess still teaches you something about the order.

How to play Catalogues

1. Open the day's Catalogues puzzle on The New Yorker's puzzles and games page or in the app.
2. Read the title and look at the seven items to work out what they share.
3. Decide which property the items are sorted by: a date, a size, a number, a position or the alphabet.
4. Drag the items into the order you think is right and submit.
5. If the order is wrong, rearrange and try again; you have five tries in all.
6. Use the optional clues if you cannot see the theme.

Tips

• Read the title twice: it often names the sorting rule as well as the subject.
• Place the items you are sure of at the ends first, then fit the rest between them.
• Once you know the theme, ask whether the order could run either way, such as smallest to largest or largest to smallest.
• Save the clues for last; the title alone is often enough.

Questions