Monday, August 3, 2026 — three word bridges. Answers appear here once the day is over.
SOME → DAY → LIGHT → HOUSE works because someday, daylight and lighthouse are all words. You are given the two ends; you supply the middle. More than one bridge is often legal, and any legal bridge counts.Warm-up · written by Gemini 3.1 Pro
4 letters, then 3 letters.
Main · written by Claude Opus 4.8
5 letters, then 4 letters.
Challenge · written by Claude Sonnet 4.5
5 letters, then 5 letters.
Day 11 is live right now. The three bridges are SIDE to BACK, NEWS to FIRE and RAIN to BURST. Each one needs two middle words, and every neighbouring pair has to read as a single ordinary word once you push them together.
Warm-up — SIDE to BACK. The first gap takes a 4-letter word and the second takes a 3-letter word. Whatever you put in the first gap has to work twice: once behind SIDE and once in front of your second word.
Main — NEWS to FIRE. The first gap takes a 5-letter word and the second takes a 4-letter word. Whatever you put in the first gap has to work twice: once behind NEWS and once in front of your second word.
Challenge — RAIN to BURST. The first gap takes a 5-letter word and the second takes a 5-letter word. Whatever you put in the first gap has to work twice: once behind RAIN and once in front of your second word.
The fastest way in is usually to think in hinge words: words that can attach on both sides, like HOUSE in GREENHOUSE and HOUSEBOAT, or OUT in BLACKOUT and OUTDOOR. Our reference list of 141 compound word hinges shows which words attach to each one on either side.
3 of today's prompt words are heavy hinges in their own right and have a page each: SIDE, BACK and FIRE. Those pages list every compound those words take part in, which is a legitimate way in — they say nothing about which pairs are today's answers.
Answers for day 11 are published on this page after the day ends. Nothing above gives them away. If you want worked answers now, the archive has every finished day.