FOURSURE
September 24, 2026 Puzzle Breakdown
Four groups, four words each — here's the connections between today's words.
How everyone did today
Health Insurance Companies
Aetna, Humana, United, Cigna
We start off today on relatively gentle ground with a straightforward roster of major health insurance companies. Whether you recognize Aetna, Humana, United, and Cigna from your monthly paycheck deductions or just a lifetime of navigating customer service menus, spotting this corporate quartet should not have required an in-network specialist.
Calculator Manufacturers
Casio, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Sharp
Whether you relied on them to survive high school algebra or just to type upside-down jokes on a seven-segment display, these are all classic calculator manufacturers. Casio, Sharp, Hewlett-Packard, and Texas Instruments have spent decades dominating math classrooms and office desks alike. It is a straightforward company roster, sitting comfortably on the easier side of the board.
Road sign shapes
Red Octagon, Yellow Triangle, Blue Shield, Yellow Diamond
Drivers should recognize these silhouettes immediately, even stripped of their text and symbols. From the stop sign to the interstate marker, each color-and-shape pair uniquely identifies a standard piece of traffic guidance before you are even close enough to read it. If you spent too long thinking about geometric abstractions or heraldry today, consider this your warning sign.
Ski trail difficulty levels
Green Circle, Blue Square, Black Diamond, Double Black Diamond
These symbols designate trail ratings on North American ski slopes, stepping all the way from beginner terrain to expert-only chutes. Finding all four on the board was the steepest climb of the day, earning this group its place as the puzzle's hardest. Hopefully you navigated the run without wiping out.
Why these four groups
This board hinges on the visual collision between the bottom two tiers, where eight distinct color-and-shape pairs tempt you into chaos. Yellow Diamond looks right at home beside Green Circle, Blue Square, and Black Diamond, forcing solvers to separate alpine trail markers from highway conventions. The difficulty curve holds because the corporate halves provide solid footing: Sharp might masquerade as a descriptor, but paired with Casio and Texas Instruments, it locks in quickly, while titans like Aetna and United make the insurance group an unambiguous entry point before the geometry puzzle takes over.