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...

• TOMATO SAUCE
• HELICOPTER
• TAXI
• INTELLIGENCE
• ICE SKATES
• RED WINE
• GRASS
• LAWN MOWER
• INK
• CABIN
• DOUGH
• SUCTION CUPS
• CHEESE
• CALLOWAY
• ARMS
• PEPPERONI

NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — elements of a classic Italian dish
• 🟩 Green group — linked to something that has more hearts and other parts than most
• 🟦 Blue group — Gillette products and a vampire movie with Wesley Snipes would fit in here
• 🟪 Purple group — knowing your ABCs is fundamental, in a roundabout way

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 — DOUGH
• 🟩 Green group — INTELLIGENCE
• 🟦 Blue group — ICE SKATES
• 🟪 Purple group — RED WINE

NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — pizza ingredients
• 🟩 Green group — associated with octopuses
• 🟦 Blue group — they have blades
• 🟪 Purple group — what "cab" might refer to

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 — pizza ingredients (CHEESE, DOUGH, PEPPERONI, TOMATO SAUCE)
• 🟩 Green group — associated with octopuses (ARMS, INK, INTELLIGENCE, SUCTION CUPS)
• 🟦 Blue group — they have blades (GRASS, HELICOPTER, ICE SKATES, LAWN MOWER)
• 🟪 Purple group — what "cab" might refer to (CABIN, CALLOWAY, RED WINE, TAXI)

I got the yellows and blues in short order. No problems with either of those!

INK, SUCTION CUPS and ARMS then helped me figure out the greens. That left me with the purples for win number 419 on the spin.

CALLOWAY refers to singer and bandleader Cab Calloway. Cab can also refer to Cabernet Sauvignon, a very popular type of red wine. As for the hint, "cab" is an anagram of ABC – I was struggling to think of a good one there!

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

🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪

No secondary NYT Connections Answers Explained column today, sorry. I’m too busy trying to wrap my mind around Titanium Court. (The category titles pretty much handled everything, I think, except for two purple things I mentioned above.)

That brings my current stint of Connections clues and answers coverage to an end here! I’ll be back with you for more on Monday. In the meantime, you can read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.

P.S. "Losing Streak" is the second Avery Cochrane song that the algorithm has offered up to me, and it’s the second one I’ve enjoyed. And, what do you know, this alt-pop artist's second EP, Male Validation and Other Drugs, is really good too:

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.