Daily Brain Teaser: What's the Connection?
Five hidden mystery words are waiting to be uncovered — can you spot the connection in each group?
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Today's challenge is a word-connection puzzle. Below are five groups of four words. For each group, find the single "mystery word" that can be joined with every word in the group — either in front of it or behind it — to form a common English word or compound.
Example: BOX, BASKET, FOOT, BASE → the mystery word is BALL (boxball... okay, bad example — try this one instead: foot, basket, base, snow all combine with BALL.)
Ready? Ink not required — this one's all in your head.
1. FOOT · BASKET · BASE · SNOW
Hint: think sports and winter weather.
2. FLOWER · RISE · SCREEN · BURN
Hint: this mystery word comes before each of these.
3. DAY · MOON · FLASH · SPOT
Hint: all four make a source of illumination.
4. NOTE · TEXT · FACE · COOK
Hint: this mystery word comes after each of these.
5. FLY · WORKS · FIGHTER · PLACE
Hint: this mystery word comes before each of these, and it's hot.
Good luck! Cover the answers below with your hand until you've given each one a real try.
Answers
BALL → football, basketball, baseball, snowball
SUN → sunflower, sunrise, sunscreen, sunburn
LIGHT → daylight, moonlight, flashlight, spotlight
BOOK → notebook, textbook, facebook, cookbook
FIRE → firefly, fireworks, firefighter, fireplace