Follow a word’s meanings away from home, making meaningful connections as you go. Then find your way back before your chain-links run out.
Start on a home word (such as bank). From the words that emerge around you, target the one that shares a meaning (such as tilt, shore, store). Be careful of decoys (choosing the wrong word will cost you a ship) but each real meaning makes a link and 'pays out cable'. When you are five, six or seven words out (depending on the level) HOME appears at the top of the screen, under the home word, and you'll need to make your way back home before your hard connecting work can count. On a phone you play it with your thumb: flick in the direction of the meaning you want, and when the word lights up you just let go.
This game explores 'Polysemy', the way one word can have many meanings, so it asks you to find and make links that might seem hidden. The decoys test how quickly you can separate what you associate with a word and the word actually means. And because the game knows which word class each sense belongs to, the higher levels reward the trickiest of shifts: linking to a word as a noun but leaving it as a verb.
Every run starts at Level 1. Dock and you step up a level; the question is how far you can get. Each level is harder: fewer real meanings, more decoys, a smaller cable allowance, senses that change word class, and further to get out before you can turn for home. The top two levels use a harder band of words. Lose all three ships and the run is over.
Once you turn for home, a red circle flashes top left. Press it and the way home goes on the clock: a few seconds a move, and every fast, correct pick builds a streak that multiplies your score. Leave it alone and you can think as long as you like. Every streak pays out cable when you dock; miss the clock and the cable snags, costing two links rather than a ship.
Cable is your currency for the whole run. You start with 20 links and every word costs one. Dock and the station winds back on its allowance for the level, so a quick way home banks the spare and a long, wandering one draws on your reserve. You earn extra for links that change word class and for advanced senses, and you never start a word with less than 12.
The game shows you the real meaning you missed, with its phrase, and the ways home that were still open from where you were – so every snapped flex teaches you a route for next time.
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Safe by design. No pupil data is collected, there are no engagement loops or advertising, and nothing our players type ever reaches an AI.