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...

• TANG
• CHIP
• BOARD
• PINKY
• DALE
• REDO
• SPLINTER
• NUT
• HOLLOW
• TREE
• GORGE
• BRONZER
• CRACKER
• DELL
• LOG
• PRETZEL

Today’s NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — these perhaps won't go quietly into the night... or your mouth
• 🟩 Green group — how much would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck it?
• 🟦 Blue group — a kind of Great Depression most of us would probably be okay with
• 🟪 Purple group — as at sunrise or sunset, there's more shade than usual

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 — NUT
• 🟩 Green group — BOARD
• 🟦 Blue group — DALE
• 🟪 Purple group — TANG

Today’s NYT Connections Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — crunchy snack item
• 🟩 Green group — various amounts of wood
• 🟦 Blue group — areas of low ground
• 🟪 Purple group — colors plus a letter

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...

The cartoon rodent red herring tripped me up immediately. Rats! At least I figured out that meant CHIP had to go with the yellows and SPLINTER had to go with the greens.

From there, I felt the blues were straightforward enough to spot, leaving the purples for the win. BRONZER and PINKY made that category not too difficult to figure out. But for that irresistible red herring, I would have had a regular rainbow to extend my streak to 481 wins.

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

🟨🟪🟦🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪

Gosh, there isn't much to spell out there, thanks to the category title, so I think I'll have to skip the Answers Explained column again today.

I will say that the red herring I saw was CHIP, DALE (as in the chipmunks Chip 'n' Dale), PINKY (a mouse in Pinky and the Brain) and SPLINTER (a mutant rat from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

That is it for my current weekday run of Connections hints and answers columns here. I’ll be back with you for more shenanigans on Monday. In the meantime, you can read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.

P.S. I really love mashups when they’re done well, and this is a really well-done mashup. It might, in fact, be the ultimate mashup.

If you ever wanted to hear a boatload of artists injected into KC and the Sunshine Band’s "That’s The Way I Like It" (albeit with some swears), this is the only mashup you’ll ever need. It’s so much fun, and a great way to kick off the weekend:

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.