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...

• LOVE
• CHESS
• HONEY
• MOON
• PEACH
• HOT
• YELLOW
• PUMPKIN
• ADVANTAGE
• CAN
• PECAN
• COLONEL
• DEUCE
• SHOOFLY
• CABOOSE
• FORTY

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — apple, pizza and cutie are other options
• 🟩 Green group — like the target of a joke or part of a cigarette
• 🟦 Blue group — before game and set
• 🟪 Purple group — hot dog! That's got a tangy kick!

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 — PUMPKIN
• 🟩 Green group — MOON
• 🟦 Blue group — FORTY
• 🟪 Purple group — YELLOW

Today’s NYT Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — kinds of pies
• 🟩 Green group — things associated with butts
• 🟦 Blue group — tennis scoring terms
• 🟪 Purple group — _____ mustard

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...

My first thought after looking at today’s grid was “What on Earth is (a) SHOOFLY?” Had to be a purple, right? I saw "hoof" in the middle and thought there might be something to that,

Still, I got the tennis scores first and was surprised those were the blues. COLONEL and HONEY then got me to the purples.

Ummmm... at that point, there was only one thing that could link CABOOSE and MOON. So I got the greens. That left the yellows as my default group for today. I suppose PEACH could have fit in there. But I'm certainly going to have to look up whatever the heck a SHOOFLY pie is for today's Answers Explained.

A tricky one today, but I still managed to achieve a perfect game, somehow, for win number 445 on my current streak.

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

🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦

Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column right here:

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 Friday’s game if you need them.

P.S. I saw a Reddit thread from the director of this music video talking about how they decided to plow most of the budget into the special effects makeup, bringing in an Emmy-winning makeup artist to handle those duties.

They created a rat-person character who tries to assimilate into human life. It’s a cool video (because humans make art and machines cannot) and “Spark” by The Overjoyed is a fun pop-punk track. An instant playlist addition for me:

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.