Waking up and staring at sixteen words that seem to have absolutely zero relationship to one another is a mood. It’s a specific kind of morning frustration. You’re sipping coffee, looking at "BAIT" and "SWITCH" and thinking, "Okay, easy," only to realize the editor, Wyna Liu, has once again laid a trap that would make a cartoon villain jealous. If you are looking for a hint for today's connections, you are likely in that "one mistake left" danger zone. We’ve all been there. It’s not just a game; it’s a psychological battle against a grid of words designed to mislead you.
The New York Times Connections puzzle has become a digital ritual. It’s the successor to Wordle’s throne, but it’s meaner. Wordle is about logic and elimination. Connections? Connections is about how your brain categorizes the world, and more importantly, how it handles "red herrings." A red herring is a word that fits perfectly into two different categories, forcing you to guess which one is the "true" fit. Honestly, it’s rude. But that is why we play.
Why the grid looks impossible right now
Sometimes the grid looks like a foreign language. You see words that could be verbs, then you realize they are also types of birds, or maybe brands of bottled water from the 90s. The difficulty of a hint for today's connections often depends on your specific vocabulary. If you don't know sailing terms or 18th-century poetry, you might be in trouble.
Most people fail because they jump at the first obvious connection. You see four colors? Don't click them. Not yet. Usually, one of those colors belongs to a group of "Things found in a deck of cards" or "Primary emotions in a Pixar movie." The NYT loves to take a set of five items that belong together and force you to figure out which one is the odd man out to fit a different, more obscure category. It’s about restraint.
The art of the "Yellow" category
Yellow is supposedly the easiest. It’s the "Straightforward" group. But "straightforward" is a relative term when you're pre-caffeine. Usually, the yellow group involves synonyms for being tired, or maybe words that mean "small."
If you're looking at the grid and see a bunch of words that basically mean "to complain," that’s a classic yellow. Grip, beef, bellyache, carp. They aren't fancy. They don't require a PhD in linguistics. They just require you to see past the fact that "Beef" could also go with "Chicken" and "Pork" in a different, non-existent category.
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The "Blue" and "Purple" nightmare
Purple is the wild card. It’s usually "Words that follow ____" or "Words that start with a fruit." It’s the meta-category. To solve the purple group, you often have to stop looking at what the word is and start looking at what the word does in a sentence.
For example, if you see "JACK," "PUDDING," "CAKE," and "KNIFE," you might be lost. But if you realize they all follow "FRUIT," you’ve cracked it. Fruitjack (not a thing), Fruitcake, Fruit knife, Fruit pudding. Wait, that’s not right either. This is how the brain spirals. You have to be willing to say the words out loud. Sometimes hearing the phonetics helps more than looking at the letters.
Real strategies for today's puzzle
Stop clicking. Seriously.
The best way to use a hint for today's connections is to work backward. Look for the most "specialized" word in the bunch. If there is a word like "OSSIFY" or "QUARK," it has a very limited number of friends. Find those friends first. The common words like "RUN" or "BOX" are the dangerous ones because they have dozens of meanings. They are the chameleons of the grid.
- Check for parts of speech. Are there four verbs? Four nouns?
- Look for homophones. Does "KNOT" actually mean "NOT"?
- Compound words. Can these words all be preceded by "SNOW" or "FIRE"?
- Pop culture. Is there a secret "Member of the Beatles" or "Classic Sitcom" group hiding in plain sight?
There’s a specific satisfaction in getting the Purple category first. It feels like you’ve outsmarted the system. But most days, it’s a grind of clicking two words, sweating, and then realizing that "MINT" wasn't a flavor, it was a place where money is made.
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Common misconceptions about Connections
A lot of players think the puzzle is randomized. It isn't. Every single grid is hand-crafted. This means there is a human intent behind every trap. Wyna Liu has mentioned in interviews that she looks for words with "overlapping resonance."
Another myth is that you should always do the easiest ones first. Actually, if you can identify the "Red Herring" words—the ones that fit in two places—you should solve the other category they belong to first. If "LEMON" could be a color or a type of car that’s a "dud," find the other "duds" first. This clears the path for the color category to be solved without the risk of a "One Away" notification.
The "One Away" message is the most stressful part of the game. It’s a taunt. It tells you that you are 75% correct but 100% failing. When you get that message, do not just swap one word for another randomly. Step back. Look at the eight words you didn't pick. Does one of those fit the theme better?
How to actually improve your game
Read more. It sounds cliché, but people who have a wide breadth of trivia knowledge—from Broadway musicals to periodic table elements—tend to breeze through these. The NYT loves to pull from "Prestige" culture. Think Opera, High Fashion, and classic Literature. But they also love "Low" culture, like slang, fast food, and emoji descriptions.
One of the best hints for today's connections is to simply look for prefixes. "RE-," "UN-," "BI-." Sometimes the connection is purely structural. Or look for "hidden" words within the words. It’s rare, but it happens.
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If you’re really struggling, try the "Shuffle" button. It’s there for a reason. Our brains get locked into a visual pattern. We see four words in a square and assume they belong together. Shuffling breaks that optical illusion and lets you see new pairings. It’s a literal "reset" for your synapses.
Taking the next step toward mastery
The beauty of the game is its brevity. You get one shot a day. If you fail, you wait until midnight. This scarcity makes every click feel heavy.
To get better, start keeping a mental (or physical) note of the "types" of categories the NYT uses. They repeat themes. Not the words, but the logic. Once you recognize the "Words that are also constellations" trick, you’ll be ready for it next time. Once you see the "Words that sound like letters" (UE, TEA, BEE, ARE) trick, you won't get fooled again.
Next time you open the app, don't look for groups. Look for the word that doesn't belong anywhere. Usually, that word is the key to the Purple group. If you can find the weirdest word on the board and figure out its secret, the rest of the puzzle falls like dominos.
Go back to the grid now. Look at the words again. Ignore the obvious. Ask yourself: "What else could this word mean?" If you see "POKER," don't just think cards. Think "Fireplace tool." If you see "HAM," don't just think "Sandwich." Think "Bad actor." That is how you win.
Actionable Insight for Tomorrow: Before you make your first guess, identify at least two words that could belong to multiple groups. This "dual-threat" analysis prevents you from wasting lives on the easy-looking traps. Once you've identified the overlaps, solve the group that doesn't include the overlapping word first. This leaves the ambiguous word for the group where it's the only logical fit.