Definitions is the quieter sibling of Headlines. The board works the same way. Three dictionary definitions are scrambled together. Each row is one definition, and the number of slots in that row stays fixed. Tap one word, then another, to swap them. You are not told the headword up front. The sentence is the puzzle, and the word it describes comes into focus as the sentence does.
That makes it a vocabulary game that still rewards feel. You can solve a row because it sounds like a definition of a tool, an animal, or a feeling, without having the word on the tip of your tongue. When you do know the word, use it. A definition of something nautical will not contain “saucepan”. Topic is information. There is a tutorial if you want the colours shown before you touch the daily board. Each day is its own puzzle, on its own calendar, and older days stay in the archive.
How a round works
- Three dictionary definitions are scrambled together. Each row is one of them.
- Tap one word, then another, to swap them.
- Green means the right word in the right slot. It locks. In high contrast, that colour is orange.
- Orange means the word belongs in this definition, but in the wrong slot. In high contrast, that colour is blue.
- Grey means the word does not belong in this definition.
- The puzzle can be solved in 10 swaps. You get 20.
Dictionary prose is repetitive on purpose. Articles, prepositions, and the small verbs — “a”, “of”, “who”, “that”, “to” — are the scaffolding. Get those into the right rows and the content words have fewer places left to hide. The same warning as Headlines applies to duplicates: once a row has the “of” it needs, another “of” may go grey because this definition is full.
How to rebuild a definition
Sort by the rare word first. Two definitions can share a lot of little words and still be about entirely different things. The noun that can only belong to one of them is the anchor. Park it, see which row turns it orange or green, and drag the rest of that topic with it. Fine-tuning the order of a row that still holds a stranger is how swaps disappear.
Then listen for dictionary style. Definitions often open with “a person who”, “the quality of”, or “to move”. Once a row starts to sound like that, you are close, even if the adjective is still in the wrong slot. Orange words in a row that already sounds like English need a reorder, not a new story. Green words are finished. Leave them alone.
Ten swaps is a clean solve. Twenty is the budget you actually have, and it is enough to test which row owns a word and still have moves left to order it. Random swapping spends the budget before the topics have separated. Separate first, order second.
Where it sits
Definitions and Headlines train the same eye — colour, row, slot — on different kinds of English. A day of news and a day of dictionary entries are not the same puzzle. If you like placing a single word rather than rebuilding a sentence, Middle Word is the alphabetical cousin. If you would rather trace letters through a grid, Word Snake shows you a skeleton and asks for a path.