One start. One finish. Three hidden routes.
Hidden routes between distant words
Graft starts with two English words that seem unrelated and asks you to hop from one to the other, word by word, where each step shares a hidden root with the last. The links are usually in disguise, which is what makes the puzzle: fracture and infringe don't look alike, but both carry the Latin frangere, “to break” — a fracture is a break, and to infringe is to break a rule.
Roots are masters of disguise. The Latin capere, “to take,” surfaces as capt in capture, as cept in accept, and as ceive in receive. The prefix in- shows up as im-, il-, and ir- depending on the sound that follows. Once you learn that a root can wear several masks, distant words start to feel like neighbours.
Each hop you complete is labelled with the actual root that links the pair, so the board slowly teaches you the connections you haven't spotted yet — and the further you get, the easier it becomes. It's less a word game than a map of how English is quietly wired together underneath. New to roots? The field guide is the place to start.