Mechanical puzzle types glossary

Core mechanical puzzle families

Burr puzzle

An interlocking construction, usually made from notched sticks or bars, where one or more key pieces control disassembly.

Interlocking puzzle

Pieces hold one another in a stable structure. Burrs are one important subset.

Disentanglement puzzle

The goal is to free a ring, loop, rope or piece without bending or breaking the components.

Sequential movement puzzle

A fixed series of legal moves transforms or opens the puzzle. Snake Cube and many boxes use sequence-based logic.

Puzzle box / opening puzzle

An object with a hidden or non-obvious opening mechanism such as sliding panels, pins, magnets or gravity catches.

Packing puzzle

Pieces must fit into a defined boundary or container, often in one exact arrangement.

Assembly puzzle

Separate pieces must be reconstructed into a target object. This overlaps with interlocking, packing and model-building puzzles.

Dexterity puzzle

Success depends partly on physical control, balance or manipulation rather than deduction alone.

Shape names are not mechanism names

Retail names such as wooden ball, star, cube, barrel or cross often describe the finished object. Two puzzles with the same shape can use completely different mechanisms. That is why Crafty Puzzles asks for material, piece count and construction as well as the name.

Use the glossary to find a solution

Start at all puzzle solutions, narrow an unknown object with the Puzzle Finder, or browse the mechanical puzzle encyclopedia for deeper category explanations.