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...

• MOTHER
• MY
• NEIGHBOR
• TOTORO
• TOUCH
• WHAMMY
• SKIRT
• SCIENCE
• PULP
• EDUCATED
• LITERARY
• ASIAGO
• DEVOTE
• VERY
• HISTORICAL
• FLANK

NYT Connections Hints

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• 🟨 Yellow group — very close by
• 🟩 Green group — made up
• 🟦 Blue group — they can help one remember the order of planets
• 🟪 Purple group — fittingly, most of these were opening acts at one point

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 — SKIRT
• 🟩 Green group — PULP
• 🟦 Blue group — VERY
• 🟪 Purple group — WHAMMY

NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — border
• 🟩 Green group — kinds of fiction
• 🟦 Blue group — words in a planetary mnemonic
• 🟪 Purple group — starting with four-letter '80s bands

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 — border (FLANK, NEIGHBOR, SKIRT, TOUCH)
• 🟩 Green group — kinds of fiction (HISTORICAL, LITERARY, PULP, SCIENCE)
• 🟦 Blue group — words in a planetary mnemonic (EDUCATED, MOTHER, MY, VERY)
• 🟪 Purple group — starting with four-letter '80s bands (ASIAGO, DEVOTE, TOTORO, WHAMMY)

I appreciated the My Neighbor Totoro reference on the top line, but knew that couldn’t be a group, since the film has a three-word title. So I got to thinking about what else TOTORO could be a reference to. That’s when WHAMMY caught my eye. Toto... Wham... Those are '80s bands! DEVOTE and ASIAGO rounded out the purples. (I did some research for the hint and, apparently, Wham were never an opening act!)

PULP and SCIENCE then made the greens clear. I am 100% sure we've had a group like that in the past. The blues were up next. I didn't even remember what "MY VERY EDUCATED MOTHER" referred to, just that I vaguely recalled it being a phrase.

That left the yellows for a 418th win in a row.

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’ve got to go with a song from a band in the last group. “I’m Your Man” by Wham is a good 'un:

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.