Happy Life GamesPuzzle Game Glossary: 36 Terms from Casual Puzzle Games, A to Z
Puzzle games borrow words from card tables, math classes and arcades, and one idea often goes by several names. Here are the terms you're most likely to meet, each with a short definition and a link to a guide where it matters.
For a method that ties these ideas together, see how to solve logic puzzles.
A–C
Anagram
A word made by rearranging the letters of another word, such as LISTEN and SILENT. Every Word Connect level is a set of anagrams drawn from one wheel of letters. Our word game strategies article covers how to find them.
Blocker
A piece that gets in the way and must be cleared or worked around. Examples include the frosting tiles in Candy Match, the stones in Bubble Shooter that never pop, and the vehicles standing between the red car and the exit in Unblock Car.
Bonus word
A valid word you can spell from the available letters that isn't one of the level's required answers. In Word Connect, bonus words are counted separately.
Cascade
A chain reaction where cleared pieces let others fall into new matches on their own. Cascades are a signature feature of match-3 games like Candy Match.
Color bomb
A special piece in match-3 games, typically created by lining up five pieces of one color, that clears a whole color from the board. In Candy Match, matching five creates one.
Combo
Clearing several groups in a row, or with a single move, often for extra reward. TriPeaks shows a combo counter once your streak reaches three cards.
D–F
Dead end
A position from which the puzzle can no longer be solved, even if some legal moves remain. Spot it early and undo or restart. Many levels in Pipe Connect are built so that the obvious route leads to one.
Deadlock
A situation where pieces block each other so that none of them can move. In Arrow Escape, rings of arrows pointing at one another form "knots" of this kind, and you need to find an arrow with room to slide to break them.
Decoy
Something placed to mislead, like a partial word in Word Search that starts correctly and then breaks off, or a tempting placement in Block Fill that blocks the only real solution.
Euler path
A route through a network that uses every connection exactly once. A drawing can be traced in one stroke without lifting your pen only if it has zero or two points where an odd number of lines meet. The idea goes back to Leonhard Euler's 1736 work on the bridges of Königsberg. Read more in one-stroke puzzles and Euler paths.
Exact cover
A puzzle in which pieces must fill a region completely with no gaps and no overlaps. Block Fill is an exact cover puzzle: every cell of the carved slot must be covered by exactly one piece.
Flood fill
Filling every connected cell of a region, the way paint spreads outward until it reaches a border. Puzzles that demand full coverage, such as Color Link, where every cell must be filled by a pipe, and Mow the Grass, where every patch must be cut, are close relatives of the idea.
Forced move
A move that has to be made at some point in every solution. Finding forced moves is the fastest way to make safe progress, especially in Sudoku.
Foundation
In solitaire, a pile where cards are built up by suit, usually from ace to king. Our solitaire guide explains how it works in Klondike and FreeCell.
Free cell
A holding spot for a single card in the solitaire game FreeCell. More broadly, any temporary slot you can park a piece in. It works best kept empty until really needed.
Free space
Empty room on the board: an empty tube in Water Sort, an empty bolt in Nut Sort, an empty peg in Color Rings. Spare room like this works as a buffer, and most sorting puzzles are won or lost by how carefully you spend it.
H–M
Hamiltonian path
A route that visits every point (or cell) exactly once. It's the cell-based cousin of the Euler path. One Stroke asks for exactly this: a single stroke through every cell of a shape from the marked start.
Hint
A button that shows the next move toward a solution. Afterwards, work out why that move was right.
Layer
One level of a stack of overlapping tiles. In Tile Match, tiles on lower layers can't be picked until the tiles covering them are gone.
Lock and key
A mechanic where one piece stays unusable until you deal with another. In TriPeaks, a locked card opens when you play its key card. In Word Connect, a locked word opens once you've spelled its key word.
Match-3
A game type in which you swap or place pieces to line up three or more of the same kind, which then disappear. Candy Match is a classic example. Tile Match uses the same rule in a different way: three identical tiles in the tray pop.
Merge
Combining two identical pieces into one of higher value. In 2048 Merge, two equal tiles slide together and become a single tile worth their sum.
Move limit
A cap on how many moves you can use. 2048 Merge and Candy Match both use one.
O–S
Orphan
A piece that loses its connection to the rest of the structure and falls away. In Bubble Shooter, bubbles left hanging with nothing holding them up drop off the board.
Par
Borrowed from golf: the number of moves an efficient solution takes. The move limits in 2048 Merge are set close to the minimum number of swipes the level needs.
Polyomino
A shape made of squares joined edge to edge. Dominoes have two squares and tetrominoes have four. The pieces in Block Fill and Block Blast are polyominoes.
Pour
In Water Sort, moving liquid from one tube to another. A pour carries the whole layer of matching color on top, as much as the target tube can hold, and only onto the same color or into an empty tube.
Shuffle
Rearranging pieces without changing what they are. Word Connect's shuffle button reorders the letter wheel, which often helps you see a new word.
Sliding block puzzle
A puzzle in which pieces slide within a frame and can't be lifted out. Slide Puzzle and Unblock Car are both examples. See our guide to sliding block puzzles.
Stack
Pieces piled up so that only the top one can move. Tubes, bolts, pegs and branches in sorting games all behave as stacks. The Tower of Hanoi is the classic stacking puzzle.
Stock
In solitaire, the face-down pile you draw from; the main layout of cards is called the tableau. In TriPeaks, the number of cards left in the stock is your budget for the whole deal.
Streak
The number of plays you've made in a row without a break, also called a chain. TriPeaks tracks it on a meter, and it resets when you draw from the stock.
T–W
Tray
A small holding area with a fixed number of slots. In Tile Match the tray has seven, some levels lock a few of them, and the level is lost if it fills up.
Undo
Takes back your last move. Use it to explore: try a line of play, and step back if it goes nowhere.
Waste
In solitaire, the face-up pile of drawn or played cards. In TriPeaks, the top waste card decides which cards you can play next.
Wrap-around
When a sequence loops from its end back to its start. In our TriPeaks, ranks wrap, so a king can be played on an ace and an ace on a king.