FOREWORD

About FOREWORD

A FOREWORD board holds 16 tiles, each a fragment of letters such as sm, rip, arie or int. The goal is a chain of five words. The trick is that four of the tiles are thread tiles: each one is shared by two neighbouring words, ending the first and starting the second. Working out which tiles are threads and where they sit in the chain is the puzzle, and the words share a theme that is only revealed once you finish.

Beyond the chain you can score Discoveries, bonus points for any real English word of two to five letters you spot in the tiles. Difficulty rises through the week, easier on Monday and Tuesday and hardest at the weekend. There are three hints a puzzle, streaks, a calendar of past results, a rank ladder from Novice to Tight Weave, a share card and a daily Game Center leaderboard.

The puzzle is the same for every player and changes at 00:00 UTC. FOREWORD is made by a one-person studio, Embay, and launched on the App Store in May 2026. The daily puzzle is free with ads; an optional FOREWORD+ subscription removes ads and adds the archive, a practice mode and more stats.

How to play FOREWORD

1. Open FOREWORD to see the day's 16 letter-fragment tiles.
2. Tap tiles in order to build a word and submit it.
3. Look for tiles that can end one word and begin the next: those are the four threads.
4. Link all five words into one chain to finish and reveal the theme.
5. Spot extra real words in the tiles for Discovery points.

Screenshots

Tips

• Start from fragments that can only begin a word, such as consonant clusters, to anchor the chain.
• A tile that fits at the end of one word and the start of another is a likely thread.
• Save hints for the hard weekend puzzles.

Questions