How to Use Our Connections Hints
Our hint system gives you two levels of clues for each category before revealing the answer. The first hint offers a general direction — the type of connection to look for. The second hint narrows it down further with specifics about the category name. This way you can get just enough help without fully spoiling the puzzle.
We recommend starting with the yellow category (easiest) and working down to purple (hardest). Solving easier groups first removes words from the board and makes the remaining groups more manageable.
What Is NYT Connections?
Connections is a daily word puzzle from The New York Times where you sort 16 words into four groups of four. Each group shares a hidden connection — it could be synonyms, categories, phrases, wordplay, or cultural references. The groups are color-coded by difficulty: yellow (easiest), green, blue, and purple (hardest). You get four mistakes before the game ends.
The puzzle resets every day at midnight Eastern Time. It has become one of the most popular daily word games alongside Wordle, attracting millions of players who enjoy the challenge of finding unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated words.
Connections Strategy Guide
Improving at Connections takes practice and pattern recognition. Here are proven strategies used by top solvers:
- Scan all 16 words first. Before guessing, read every word and look for obvious groupings. Do not rush into your first guess.
- Start with Yellow. The yellow group is designed to be the most straightforward. Identify it first to remove four words from the board.
- Watch for red herrings. Many words intentionally fit multiple categories. For example, BASS could be a fish, a music term, or part of a brand name. Context from other words in the potential group helps determine the correct placement.
- Look for the Purple pattern early. Purple categories often involve wordplay (hidden words, "___ + word" patterns, or double meanings). Spotting this pattern early prevents you from misplacing those words into easier groups.
- Use process of elimination. After solving two groups, the remaining 8 words become much easier to split. Sometimes you can solve the last two groups without any guesses by simple elimination.
- Consider word parts. Sometimes the connection is not about the word's meaning but about letters hidden inside it, or words that can precede or follow another word.
Understanding the Difficulty Colors
- Yellow (Easiest): Usually straightforward synonyms, obvious categories, or common knowledge. Most players solve this group first.
- Green: Slightly harder. Often involves less obvious categories or words that could fit in multiple groups.
- Blue: Requires specific knowledge — pop culture references, technical terms, or less common word associations.
- Purple (Hardest): Almost always involves wordplay, hidden patterns, or a tricky twist. Expect fill-in-the-blank patterns ("___ HOUSE"), words within words, or unexpected category definitions.
Common Connections Category Patterns
After analyzing hundreds of past Connections puzzles, certain category patterns appear repeatedly. Knowing these patterns helps you spot the theme faster, especially for the tricky blue and purple groups:
- Fill-in-the-blank ("___ HOUSE", "ROCK ___"): One of the most common patterns, especially for purple. All four words complete a phrase with the same hidden word. When you see words that each could follow or precede a common word, this is likely the connection.
- Hidden words: All four words contain a hidden word within them. For example, CARPET, SCARLET, CARTOON, and CARBON all contain CAR. Purple categories love this pattern because it is hard to spot.
- Double meanings: Words chosen for their secondary meaning. BASS could be a fish or a musical term. When multiple words seem to fit two different groups, one of those groups is probably using the less obvious meaning.
- Pop culture sets: Names of characters, movies, songs, or brands that share a category. Blue groups often use this — for example, four words that are all Pixar movies or all Taylor Swift albums.
- Straightforward synonyms: The yellow group is almost always simple synonyms or members of an obvious category. Words meaning "happy" or types of "bread" are typical yellow-group connections.
Browse our Connections answers archive to study past category patterns and improve your pattern recognition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Connections resets at midnight Eastern Time every day. Our hints page updates shortly after the new puzzle becomes available.
You get four mistakes before the puzzle ends. Each incorrect grouping of four words counts as one mistake. Use our hints to avoid wasting guesses on the harder categories.
Purple categories typically involve wordplay, hidden patterns, or non-obvious connections. Common purple patterns include: words that all contain a hidden word (e.g., CARPET, CARGO → CAR), fill-in-the-blank phrases ("___ HOUSE"), or words that share an unexpected secondary meaning.
Yes. Everyone gets the same 16 words and the same four categories each day. However, the order in which the 16 words appear on the board is randomized for each player.
Yes, Connections is currently free to play on the NYT Games website without a subscription, similar to Wordle.
Sports Connections follows the same 4-group format but all categories are sports-related — teams, athletes, leagues, and sports terminology. Check our Sports Edition hints page for today's sports puzzle.
The NYT does not currently offer an official Connections archive for past puzzles. You can browse past answers and categories on our Connections answers archive page to review how previous puzzles worked.
Purple categories almost always involve wordplay or a non-obvious pattern. Look for hidden words within the answer words, fill-in-the-blank patterns where all four words complete the same phrase, or words selected for their secondary or less common meaning rather than their primary one. Solving purple first (before it gets confused with easier groups) is a valid advanced strategy.