Drift
Also known as Column anagram and Word rectangle
Every row of the grid was a word from one theme. The words thawed, and their letters drifted down the columns and got mixed. Tap a letter, then another in the same column, to swap them — letters never leave their column — and finish when every row is a word again, in any order. The theme is always named, and a few letters start fixed in place. Every board is dealt so only one set of words fits.
How it works
- Every row was a word from one theme. The words thawed, and their letters drifted down the columns and got mixed.
- Tap a letter, then another in the same column, to swap them. Letters never leave their column.
- Finish when every row is a word again. The rows can end up in any order — every board is dealt so only one set of words fits.
- The theme is always named. Harder tiers drift more and longer words, with fewer letters fixed.
- A hint swaps one letter into its right place.
Good if you want…
- An anagram you can see the whole of at once
- A word puzzle with nothing to type
- Something to play with one thumb
How to solve Drift
Read each column as a set of letters
A letter never leaves its column, so the first column holds the first letter of every word, the second column every second letter, and so on to the end. Before swapping anything, read the first column as a list of initials. With the theme named, those initials are often enough to guess most of the words outright. Then check each guess against the second and third columns, which must contain its next letters.
Use the last column too
The final column is every word's last letter, and endings are as telling as beginnings. A column that ends in two Ys and an E says a great deal about which theme words are in play. Working from both ends at once usually leaves only the middle letters to settle.
Start from the fixed letters
The letters dealt in place, drawn differently from the rest, are already in their answer squares and cannot be swapped. Each one tells you something certain about its row: the word that ends up there has that letter in that position. Easy and Medium give you three, Hard two and Expert one, each in a different column. A good first word is one whose letters agree with a fixed letter in its row.
Finish one row at a time
Rows can finish in any order, so a word can live in whichever row is convenient, unless a fixed letter says otherwise. Build one word completely before moving on. When a row spells one of the answer words it lights up, and every letter in it is where it belongs, so you can leave that row alone and work with what is left in each column.
Common mistakes
- Forcing a word into a row where a fixed letter disagrees. Fixed letters never move, so the word belongs in another row.
- Settling on a real word that is not an answer. It can use up a letter another row needed. If the leftover letters in a column cannot finish the other rows, one of your words is wrong, even if it spells something.
- Hunting for a letter in the wrong column. Every letter a word needs in its third position is already somewhere in the third column.
Drift questions
Does the order of the rows matter?
No. The board is solved when every row is a word, in any order. Every board is dealt so that only one set of words can be made from the columns.
How big are the grids?
Easy is three five-letter words, Medium four five-letter words, Hard four six-letter words, and Expert five five-letter words with only one letter fixed.
What does a hint do?
It swaps one letter into its right place. Fixed letters are never moved.
Drift in Winters Puzzles
Drift is one of 40 puzzles in Winters Puzzles, so it sits alongside Word Search, Silhouette, Word Dominoes and everything else in the app rather than being a download of its own. It counts towards your stats and streak like any other puzzle. It also has a published board in Pip’s dailies, with earlier dates available in the archive.
Play Drift.
Free on iPhone and iPad, with 39 other puzzles alongside it. Or play it in your browser — no download, nothing to sign up for.
