NYT Connections – How To Play

Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.

Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.

There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.

Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.

As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.

Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.

NYT Connections Hints – Today’s Word List

Scroll slowly! I’ll first give you a list of today’s words, then a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.

Today’s 16 words are...

• CALL
• TAN
• DRY
• FLOWER
• CHECK
• DIAL
• FOLD
• BID
• MATCH
• SORT
• STAMP
• APPEAL
• WASH
• SCREEN
• REQUEST
• COUPON

NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — plea to others
• 🟩 Green group — steps between basket and drawers
• 🟦 Blue group — like phone numbers of local residents and businesses, photos and Macs
• 🟪 Purple group — drop, bath, spot and room would all fit in here

NYT Connections Hints – One Answer Per Group

Need some extra help?

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.

Here we go…

• 🟨 Yellow group — CALL
• 🟩 Green group — SORT
• 🟦 Blue group — COUPON
• 🟪 Purple group — DIAL

NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — entreaty
• 🟩 Green group — laundry day verbs
• 🟦 Blue group — things that come in “books”
• 🟪 Purple group — sun____

NYT Connections Answers

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your last chance to look away.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — entreaty (APPEAL, BID, CALL, REQUEST)
• 🟩 Green group — laundry day verbs (DRY, FOLD, SORT, WASH)
• 🟦 Blue group — things that come in "books" (CHECK, COUPON, MATCH, STAMP)
• 🟪 Purple group — sun____ (DIAL, FLOWER, SCREEN, TAN)

I got the laundry words first to lock in the greens, even though I am lazy and neither SORT nor FOLD my laundry most of the time. (The vast majority of my clothes are dark and I just pull them out of the dryer as I need them. Oops.)

CHECK and MATCH then led me into the blues, as did TAN and FLOWER for the purples. That left the yellows, for which the category was clear enough.

My streak is now at 423 wins in a row. How did you get on today? Here's my grid:

🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨

No separate NYT Connections Answers Explained column from me today. I think the category titles handled all of that neatly enough?

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Wednesday’s game if you need them.

P.S. Laufey is terrific. Her style of jazz pop really helps her stand out from the crowd, and the bossa nova-influenced “Madwoman” is another winner.

The video’s really fun too. It features stars from the Asian diaspora, including the incredible Olympic gold medal-winning figure skater Alysa Liu, The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Lola Tung, Megan Skiendiel of Katseye and Hudson Williams from Heated Rivalry:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.