Word Solitaire

Words in place of suits

There are two kinds of card. A category card names a group, and word cards are the members that belong in one group or another. Where an ordinary deck asks you to follow rank and suit, this one asks what a word means and which heading it sits under. The game’s own description calls it a mix of card-game challenge and word association.

How a stack is built

Stacks follow a strict order. The category card is placed first; after that, each word that fits it can join, and the set is complete once all of its related words are in. A level opens with part of the board already dealt, much as a classic solitaire game does, and the rest arrives from the deck one card at a time. Every draw is a small decision about where that particular card should go.

Thinking ahead

Since a word cannot join a stack until its category card is down, the order in which cards turn up matters. It helps to keep track of which categories are already out and which are still to come, so that a word you draw can go straight to its heading. The links are not always on the surface, either. The game talks about hidden connections, which suggests a word may fit a category you would not expect at first glance, so read each category name closely before placing a word.

A test of three skills

The game presents itself as a challenge to vocabulary, logic and strategy in roughly equal parts. Vocabulary tells you what a word means, logic ties it to the right category, and strategy decides where each drawn card should go.