Guide
What is a word chain?
Three different games share the name. Last-letter chains, compound-word chains, and the meaning chain Onword puts on a letter grid.
The last-letter chain
The version most people mean. Each new word starts with the last letter of the word before it. CAT, then TIGER, then RABBIT. No repeats, often a category, often a short clock. In Japan it is shiritori, played with syllables instead of letters. It works spoken in a car or typed in a browser, and it ends when someone cannot continue.
The compound-word chain
The second version links words that form a familiar pair. RUN, DOWN, TOWN gives you rundown and downtown. WEIGHT, ROOM, SERVICE gives you weight room and room service. Daily puzzles of this type hand you the first word and a first letter for each word after it, and you work out the links.
The meaning chain on a grid
Onword is the third shape. Letters sit on a grid. You draw one continuous trail from the marked cell through neighboring letters, diagonals included, without reusing a cell. The words along the trail chain by meaning, not by letter: CAT then DOG on the tutorial board, because the clue is two common pets. The link is the theme, and the constraint is that the whole chain has to fit one path on the board.
If you came here for the last-letter game, Onword is not it. If you like the feeling of one word handing off to the next and want a board to solve instead of a timer to beat, it is free in the browser and free as Onword Daily on iPhone and iPad.
Frequently asked questions
What are the rules of a word chain?
In the common version, each word must start with the last letter of the previous word, words cannot repeat, and a player who cannot continue is out. Some groups add a category or a time limit.
Is a word chain the same as a word ladder?
No. A word ladder changes one letter per step, so COLD becomes CORD, then CARD, then WARD, then WARM. A word chain links whole words by their last letter, by a compound pair, or, in Onword, by meaning.
Does Onword chain by last letter?
No. Onword chains by meaning along one trail on a letter grid. The next word has to start on a cell next to where the last word ended, but its first letter does not have to match anything.
Built around Onword in the Word games & puzzles hub.