Compound words with FALL

FALL is a hinge word: 6 words make a compound in front of it and 2 make one after it, so it can sit in the middle of a chain and hold two compounds together at once.

Words that go in front of FALL

Each of these makes a compound ending in FALL.

• downfall — down + fall
• landfall — land + fall
• nightfall — night + fall
• rainfall — rain + fall
• waterfall — water + fall
• windfall — wind + fall

Words that follow FALL

Each of these makes a compound starting with FALL.

• fallback — fall + back
• fallout — fall + out

Why FALL joins on both sides

FALL is a verb, a noun and, in American English, a season. RAINFALL and WATERFALL are things that fall; FALLOUT and FALLBACK are frozen verb phrases.

Bridges you can build through FALL

Put any word from the first list in front and any word from the second behind, and you have a three-word chain in which both neighbouring pairs join. Here are some of them.

• DOWN → FALL → BACK — downfall and fallback
• LAND → FALL → OUT — landfall and fallout

Play a bridge

KEYSTONE is a free daily puzzle built entirely out of chains like these. You get the two ends and have to fill the two words in the middle. Three bridges a day, no account, no cookies.

Play today's KEYSTONE

Other hinge words

Each of these has a page like this one. There is also an index of all 28.

BACK · BALL · BED · BOARD · BOOK · BREAK · DAY · DOWN · FIRE · GUN · HAND · HEAD · HOUSE · LAND · LIFE · LIGHT · MAN · NIGHT · OFF · OUT · OVER · SHIP · SIDE · SOME · TIME · WAY · WORK