How to Play Pair Down
Pair Down is a free daily word game from
Jeff Chen and Jim Horne. Each row is a word with
extra letters hidden inside it — pull the hidden letters out and a new
word is left behind. The letters you removed, read top to bottom, spell a
secret word or phrase.
Level One: remove one letter per row
In Level One, remove exactly one letter from each row so the letters that remain still spell a real word.
The letters you removed — Y, E, S — spell the secret word YES. That secret word is a hint for Level Two.
Level Two: remove two letters per row
Level Two ups the challenge: remove two consecutive letters from each row, again leaving a real word behind. The letters you pull out spell the day’s secret phrase.
Remove YW, OI, and UN to leave SPARE, LED, and BEG. The first letters you removed spell YOU and the second letters spell WIN — the secret phrase.
Want the full rundown? Read the complete how-to-play guide for Easy and Hard modes, scoring and stars, and answers to frequently asked questions — or play past puzzles in the daily archive.