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...

• ROUND
• LIST
• MASON
• BOOKMARK
• COOKIE
• LANCE
• BELL
• WAY
• TIP
• GLOVES
• STYLE
• CACHE
• RING
• PITCH
• HISTORY
• LEAN

NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — found in Safari and Edge
• 🟩 Green group — necessities for the WBO, IBF, WBA and WBC
• 🟦 Blue group — inclined to cheat at pinball?
• 🟪 Purple group — load, boot and cycle 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 — HISTORY
• 🟩 Green group — BELL
• 🟦 Blue group — PITCH
• 🟪 Purple group — WAY

NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — things stored by a browser
• 🟩 Green group — boxing terms
• 🟦 Blue group — tilt
• 🟪 Purple group — free_____

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 — things stored by a browser (BOOKMARK, CACHE, COOKIE, HISTORY)
• 🟩 Green group — boxing terms (BELL, GLOVES, RING, ROUND)
• 🟦 Blue group — tilt (LEAN, LIST, PITCH, TIP)
• 🟪 Purple group — free_____ (LANCE, MASON, STYLE, WAY)

I felt like I had a 50-50 shot out of the gate. BELL was going to go either with MASON, COOKIE and TIP ("___ jar") or ROUND, GLOVES and RING (boxing-related). I went with the former and, as it turns out, I chose poorly. One life down.

Still, that meant I was able to knock out the boxing words to get the greens. Quickly after that, I realized BOOKMARK and CACHE had to go together. COOKIE and HISTORY made sense with those for the yellows.

After several minutes of staring at the remaining words, I eventually drew a link between TIP and PITCH. Those helped me get the blues.

That left the purples, and once I saw them all on the same line, the category became clear in a flash. That's win number 409 on the trot pour moi.

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 Wednesday’s game if you need them.

P.S. The algorithm came up trumps for me yet again with "Sex, Etc." from Avery Cochrane. It's the first song I've heard from this alt-pop artist. Folks, it's real, real good. It's a fun song title to say out loud 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. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.