Waking up and opening the New York Times Games app feels like a gamble lately. Some days you're a genius; other days, you’re staring at sixteen words that seem to have absolutely zero relationship to one another. It's frustrating. If you’re currently stuck on the June 10 NYT Connections, don't worry. You aren't losing your mind. The grid today is a bit of a trickster, leaning heavily on wordplay that feels obvious only after you’ve lost your last life.
Connections is all about categories. Wyna Liu and the editorial team at the Times love to throw in "red herrings"—words that look like they belong together but are actually destined for different groups. Today is no exception. If you see a word and think, "Oh, that’s definitely about sports," maybe pause. Take a breath. It might be a trap.
What’s Going On with the June 10 NYT Connections?
Honestly, today's puzzle is a bit of a mixed bag. You've got some very literal meanings clashing with some more abstract concepts. The difficulty curve is steep. Usually, the "Yellow" category is a cakewalk, but even that one requires you to look past the surface level today.
When you first look at the board, your eyes might jump to words like PUMP or SLIPPER. Naturally, you think of footwear or maybe gym equipment. But that's exactly how the NYT gets you. They want you to group things by their physical appearance or common usage, while the real connection might be something linguistic or structural.
Quick Hints to Get You Moving
If you don't want the full answers just yet, let's try some nudges.
Think about things that come in pairs. Not just shoes, but things that are fundamentally useless if you only have one of them. That's a huge clue for one of the groups. Also, look at the words that describe movement or physical actions. If you were at a gym or maybe just clumsy, what words would you use?
Another thing: look at the words that could be synonyms for "nothing" or "zero." There's a subtle thread there that most people miss because they're too focused on the longer, more complex-looking words.
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Breaking Down the Difficulty
Most players find that the "Purple" category is the bane of their existence. It's usually the one involving "Words that start with..." or "Fill in the blank." For June 10, the purple group is particularly clever. It asks you to think about words that can follow a specific noun.
The "Green" and "Blue" categories today are the real battlegrounds. One is very straightforward—once you see it—and the other is a bit more "industry-specific." If you don't spend a lot of time thinking about mechanics or technical tools, one of these might feel like a total guess.
The Yellow Category: Simple but Tricky
The easiest group today—at least according to the NYT’s internal ranking—revolves around Types of Shoes. It sounds simple, right? But they’ve included words that could easily fit elsewhere.
- FLAT
- MULE
- PUMP
- SLIDE
Notice how "Pump" could be about gas or the gym? Or how "Mule" is an animal? That’s the classic Connections misdirection.
The Green Category: It’s All About the Math
Well, not math exactly, but quantities. This one is the "Zero" group.
- LOVE (think tennis)
- NIL
- NOTHING
- ZIP
"Love" is the big distractor here. Most people want to pair it with romantic words, but in the context of a score, it fits perfectly with "Zip" and "Nil."
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Dealing with the Hard Stuff: Blue and Purple
This is where the June 10 NYT Connections really tests your patience. The Blue category is about Things That Are Used to Hold Something Up.
- BRACE
- PILLAR
- PROP
- SHORE
"Shore" is the word that trips everyone up. Most of us think of the beach. But in construction or engineering, "shoring up" a wall is a very real, very common term. If you aren't a DIY enthusiast or an architect, that one might have felt like a leap.
The Infamous Purple Group
Finally, the hardest one. Today, it’s Words After "CHEESE".
- BOARD
- CURL
- PUFF
- WHEEL
Cheese board, cheese curl, cheese puff, cheese wheel. It makes sense once you see it, but when those words are scattered across a grid filled with "Slide" and "Love," your brain doesn't immediately go to snacks.
Why Do We Keep Playing This?
There’s a psychological hook to Connections that other games like Wordle don't quite have. Wordle is a process of elimination; Connections is a process of synthesis. You have to build the logic yourself.
According to various linguistics studies, our brains love categorization. It’s how we survive. But the NYT editors understand our "heuristic" shortcuts—the mental 'rules of thumb' we use to make quick decisions. They exploit those shortcuts by putting words like "Mule" and "Plow" (if it were there) together, hoping you'll jump to "Farm" before realizing it’s actually about footwear.
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The June 10 puzzle specifically highlights how language is fluid. A "Slide" can be a playground fixture, a PowerPoint page, or a shoe. The difficulty lies in silencing the most common definition to find the one that fits the pattern.
Strategies for Tomorrow
If today beat you, don't sweat it. Tomorrow is a new grid. Here is how you should approach the next one:
- Don't click immediately. Spend at least 60 seconds just looking.
- Find the "Double Agents." Identify words that have more than one meaning. "Pump," "Duck," "Fair." These are almost always the keys to the puzzle.
- Say them out loud. Sometimes hearing the word helps you catch a pun that your eyes missed.
- Work backward. If you find three words that fit perfectly but can't find a fourth, stop. Look for a different fourth and see if that changes the first three.
The "One Away" Trap
We've all been there. You submit, and the little bubble says "One away!" It’s tempting to just swap one word and try again. Don't. Usually, being "one away" means you've fallen for a red herring. One of those three "correct" words actually belongs to a different, harder category.
Take a step back. Re-evaluate the whole board.
Actionable Tips for Connections Success
- Broaden your vocabulary. Read different sections of the paper. Today's "Shore" hint is a prime example of how knowing a bit about construction or "Lifestyle" (cheeseboards!) can save your streak.
- Ignore the colors. The difficulty levels (Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple) are subjective. Sometimes the Purple is the first thing you'll see because your brain just works that way.
- Check the archives. If you’re really struggling, look at previous puzzles. Patterns repeat. The editors have "pet" categories they return to, like "Palindromes" or "Parts of a ______."
- Use the Shuffle button. It’s there for a reason. Sometimes a fresh visual layout breaks the mental loops that keep you stuck on a wrong connection.
The June 10 NYT Connections was a masterclass in using common nouns in uncommon ways. Whether you cleared it in four tries or failed miserably, you've now seen the "Cheese" trick and the "Construction" trick. Add those to your mental library. You'll need them for the next time the grid tries to outsmart you.