The board is a grid of face-down cards. Each picture has one card with the picture and one card with its word.
Tap a card to turn it face up, then tap a second card.
If the two cards are a picture and its word, they match and stay face up.
If they do not match, they stay face up until your next tap, which turns them face down again.
Match every card to finish. Fewer misses and less time give a higher score.
How to play here
Tap or click a card to turn it.
A matched pair gets a check mark. Two cards that do not match get a cross.
Keyboard: the arrows move between the cards, Enter or Space turns the selected card.
The theme of the day and your misses so far are above the cards.
Difficulty levels
Level
Pairs
Grid
Easy
6
4×3
Medium
8
4×4
Hard
10
5×4
Expert
15
6×5
Tips
Turn a card you have not seen yet before you guess: a new card gives you new information.
Remember where the words are, not only the pictures.
A miss costs 10 points, the same as 10 seconds, so it can be worth a moment to think.
FAQ
What is a pair?
A picture card and the card with its word, for example the cat picture and the word cat. Two pictures or two words never make a pair.
What happens when two cards do not match?
They stay face up until your next tap, so you can remember them. The next tap turns them face down. A miss lowers your score.
How is the score counted?
You start with 100 points per pair. Each miss takes off 10 points and each second takes off 1 point. The score never goes below 0.
Is there a new board every day?
Yes. A new Pairs board is dealt every day at each of the four levels: easy, medium, hard and expert. The cards come from one of 12 themes, so a theme can come back on any day, with other cards and a new layout. Earlier boards are in the archive.
Do I need an account to play?
No. You play right in your browser, with no sign-up and no cookies. Your progress is saved in your browser.