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This article was co-authored by Adrienne Raphel and by wikiHow staff writer, Dev Murphy, MA. Adrienne Raphel is a writer and crossword puzzle expert based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them (Penguin Press, 2020), named an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review; What Was It For (Rescue Press, 2017), winner of the Rescue Press Black Box Poetry Prize; and, most recently, Our Dark Academia (Rescue Press, 2022). She is currently on the English faculty at CUNY-Baruch College. She also teaches graduate-level poetry and nonfiction with the Mountainview MFA program of Southern New Hampshire University, the Writer's Foundry MFA program of St. Joseph's University, and the Berlin Writers' Workshop. Her essays and poetry appear in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Poetry, and many other publications. Raphel has been awarded a Visiting Fellowship from the American Library in Paris and named a James Merrill House Writer-in-Residence; she has been a featured speaker at events such as the National Book Festival at the Library of Congress and the Edinburgh Book Festival. She serves as a mentor with the Periplus collective. Raphel holds a PhD in English from Harvard University, an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and an AB from Princeton University.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
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If you're on TikTok, you've probably come across videos of people playing Word Chain (also called "Chain Link" or "Connect 8"), and you've also probably wondered how you can join in on the fun! That's why we've created a quick and simple guide to the trend, including how to play the game, how to set it up, and example word chains to get you started (in order of increasing difficulty). Keep reading for everything you need to know!
Word Chain Game (Quick Steps)
- 2 players must create a private list of 8–10 words that form a chain.
- Write a list of the first letter of each word, leaving only the first word spelled out.
- Exchange lists with your opponent.
- Take turns guessing the words on the list. Your turn ends when you guess wrong.
- A player may ask for the next letter in a word at the start of each turn.
- The player who guesses all of the words in their opponent's list first wins!
- To join in the TikTok trend, record your gameplay and share it to TikTok.
Steps
How to Play Word Chain
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Create a secret list of 8–10 related words that form a "chain." Each player must create a list of an equal number of words. Every word on the list must connect to the one before and after to create a phrase or compound word—for example, MENTAL might be followed by HEALTH to form MENTAL HEALTH; HEALTH might be followed by CARE to form HEALTHCARE; CARE might be followed by BEAR to form CARE BEAR; BEAR might be followed by CLAW to form BEAR CLAW. Creating your list is a fun challenge all on its own! You may need to spend some time brainstorming to create the perfect list of interconnected words. Just remember not to share your list with your opponent![2]- If it's your first time playing, you and your opponent might agree to create shorter lists of only 5 or 6 words. This will be easier than creating a longer list and will make for a shorter game.
- If you've got time to spare or are looking for more of a challenge, you and your opponent might aim for an 8-word list (or more!).
- Some players opt to be flexible with forms of words and plural words on their list—for instance, you might include LANGUAGE followed by ARTS on your list to form LANGUAGE ARTS, but follow up ARTS with MUSEUM to form ART (singular) MUSEUM. If you plan to be flexible with your word chain in this way, just make sure your opponent is aware ahead of time.
- Having trouble? We'll offer some example lists to start with later in this article.
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Write the 1st word and the 1st letter of each word and share your list. Once you and your opponent have come up with your words, write out a list of the first letter of each word and share it with your opponent, leaving only the first word written out fully to get the game started. They'll share theirs with you as well.- Using the above 5-word example chain, the list you share with your partner would look like this:
- MENTAL
- H
- C
- B
- C
- Using the above 5-word example chain, the list you share with your partner would look like this:
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Take turns trying to guess one another's words, from top to bottom. If a player guesses the first word on their opponent's list correctly in one try, they must fill it in on the list and then go on to try to guess the second word. They can keep guessing until they guess incorrectly. Once a player makes an incorrect guess, it's the other person's turn.- For instance, using the above example, if your partner guesses HEALTH, they would fill in the word on your list and take a stab at the next word on the list.
- If they correctly guess CARE, their turn would continue. If they make an incorrect guess, like CODE, their turn would be over.
- Even though HEALTH CODE is a phrase that makes sense, the word that follows CARE—BEAR—would make no sense following CODE, so it's incorrect.
- There's no hard-and-fast rule about how to decide who should go first. But if you can't choose, you can flip a coin to decide or have the youngest player go first.
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What if your opponent guesses a form of the word? If your opponent guesses a form of the correct word (for instance, let's say they guess "HEALTHY" instead of "HEALTH"), you may count it as a correct guess but clarify that it's "HEALTH," or you may tell them that they've guessed a form of the correct word.
- If you really want to be a stickler, you could tell them they've guessed incorrectly, but this would make for a really challenging game!
- Regardless of how you want to approach forms of the correct word, discuss it with your opponent ahead of time to make sure you're both on the same page.
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If you're stuck on a word, ask your opponent for the next letter. You can ask for the next letter in the word once per turn. After you have gotten your hint, you may make a guess. If you guess correctly, you can move on to the next word; if you guess incorrectly, your turn is over.- For instance, if you're on the word CARE from the above example list and you ask for a hint, your opponent would offer, C-A. You would add the letter "A" to the word.
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The first player to guess all of the words on their opponent's list wins. Whoever gets to the bottom of the list is the champ! Huzzah! -
If you want, record your gameplay to post to TikTok. Word Chain is a fun game to play whether you record it and share it to the internet or not! If you want to share the live footage with your followers, though, record your game play. Add your and your opponent's lists to the video, filling the words in as you go, so that your viewers can follow along with the fun.
Expert Q&A
Video
Tips
References
- ↑ https://blog.wordunscrambler.net/word-game/connect-8-word-game-a-fun-challenge-for-word-lovers/
- ↑ https://blog.wordunscrambler.net/word-game/connect-8-word-game-a-fun-challenge-for-word-lovers/
- ↑ Adrienne Raphel. Writer and Crossword Puzzle Expert. Expert Interview
- ↑ Juliana Pache. Crossword Puzzle Expert. Expert Interview
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