If you’re a fan of Wordle, Spelling Bee, or The Mini, there’s a good chance you’ve already been pulled into Connections, the New York Times' addictive daily word game that has quickly become a staple for puzzle lovers. With its vibrant colors, tricky categories, and satisfying “aha! ” moments, Connections is designed to test not only your vocabulary but also your pattern recognition and lateral thinking skills. Every day, a new puzzle falls at midnight, presenting players with 16 randomly selected words that have to be sorted into four related groups.
Elegant in theory, deceptively difficult in practice, and that's what makes it so addictive. Developed with the help of associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu, Connections is as brilliant as it is infuriating. The rules are simple: sort the 16 words into four sets of four with a unifying theme. The topics might be anything, movie names, idioms, things you choose, even flavors of cheese. The catch? Some words will easily fit into more than one group, but there's only one right answer.
Players have up to four wrong attempts before the game is over.
Yellow = Easy
Green = Medium
Blue = Hard
Purple = Most Difficult
You can also shuffle the board to rearrange the words, which usually helps the connections pop.
Yellow: Interjections
Green: Horror movies beginning with The
Blue: Things you can pick up
Purple: Personal belongings (singular, without the plural "s")
Whether you aced today's NYT Connections or blazed through all your attempts, remember, it's all part of the fun. Connections provides a new brain exercise every single day. So don't forget to return tomorrow for more clever categories, sneaky wordplay, and the ultimate challenge of your puzzling abilities!