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.

Today’s NYT Connections 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...

• BIG
• RING
• TINSEL
• FOCUS
• AIRPLANE
• CUP
• POINT
• SILENT
• LISTEN
• CLUE
• SUBJECT
• TWINS
• PENNANT
• ENLIST
• CONCERN
• MEDAL

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — for the win!
• 🟩 Green group — let's get down to brass tacks
• 🟦 Blue group — these had 'em rolling in the aisles in Reagan's days
• 🟪 Purple group — mix and match

NYT Connections – 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 — PENNANT
• 🟩 Green group — POINT
• 🟦 Blue group — CLUE
• 🟪 Purple group — LISTEN

Today’s NYT Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — championship awards
• 🟩 Green group — matter at hand
• 🟦 Blue group — '80s comedies
• 🟪 Purple group — anagrams

Today’s 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...

TWINS and BIG helped me figure out the movies for the blues pretty quickly. I thought something funky had to be up with TINSEL and after seeing it land next to LISTEN and ENLIST once I cleared the blues, it fell into place. Purples, sorted.

The greens were up next since those were basically synonyms. That left the yellows for the win. That's my 450th win in a row. Woo yay etc.

How did you get on today? Here's my grid:

🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩

Everything seems pretty straightforward today, so no Answers Explained column from me this time.

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. This is not my favorite song from Air’s debut album, Moon Safari (that would be “La femme d’argent,” which was one of the first additions to my “go to sleep” playlist). However, “Sexy Boy” is a fantastic track too. After all these years, it’s still dripping with coolness:

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.