FOURSURE

October 31, 2026 Puzzle Breakdown

Four groups, four words each — here's the connections between today's words.

We started you off gently today with four humble prepositions that all mean pertaining to. Whether an email is regarding a meeting or a book is about an artist, these words all do the exact same connective heavy lifting. If this group gave you any trouble, the rest of the board was probably quite an ordeal.

A quick geography refresher for anyone who regularly conflates Great Britain with the United Kingdom. Wales, England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland make up the four constituent countries of the UK. We put this in the second slot today, assuming you paid just enough attention in school to spot the union.

At rank three today, you had to perform a little light surgery on the tail end of each entry. Drop a single S from any of these and you get a completely different, fully functional word: princes, bras, cares, and deadlines. It is the kind of linguistic coincidence that looks intentional only after you have been staring at it for entirely too long.

If you spent too much time looking for tennis legends or British royalty, that was entirely by design for the hardest group of the day. These are all women immortalized across Michael Jackson tracklists, whether he was denying paternity, inquiring about their well-being, getting seduced backstage, or watching them strike in Blood on the Dance Floor. Annie may or may not be okay, but hopefully your solve survived the encounter.