Friday 16 October 2026 · daily word connections puzzle
Spoilers below: all four groups and their words. Want to try it first? This puzzle is still free to play in the archive.
Yellow - the most straightforward groupYORKSHIRE, BERKSHIRE, WILTSHIRE and HAMPSHIRE are all British counties - the most direct link on the board.
Green - mediumPARDON, CLEMENCY, MERCY and GRACE are all royal prerogatives.
Blue - harderEach word goes in front of WOOD to make a word or phrase: HOLLY + WOOD, ELDER + WOOD, OAK + WOOD and WILLOW + WOOD.
Purple - the trickiest groupA sound-alike group: say each word out loud and it sounds like a different word: KNIGHT sounds like night, WRITE sounds like right, BREAK sounds like brake and STEAL sounds like steel.
Cluster gives you 16 words that hide four groups of four. Yellow is the most straightforward group and purple the trickiest, with green and blue in between. You can make four mistakes. New to it? Read how to play Cluster.