You know that feeling. It's 8:00 AM. You’ve got your coffee. You open the app, stare at sixteen little words, and suddenly feel like you’ve forgotten how the English language works. We’ve all been there. Connections is the daily digital ritual that replaced Wordle as the internet's collective blood pressure spike. But lately, the New York Times connection clues feel different. They feel sharper. Meaner. More devious.
Honestly, it isn't just your imagination or a lack of sleep. Wyna Liu, the associate puzzle editor at the NYT who creates these daily grids, has perfected the art of the "red herring." That’s the industry term for those words that look like they belong together but are actually there to ruin your winning streak. It’s psychological warfare disguised as a word game.
The Secret Architecture of New York Times Connection Clues
Most people think the game is about finding synonyms. It isn't. Not really. If you just look for synonyms, you're going to lose your three lives before you even find the Yellow group. The game is built on four levels of difficulty, color-coded like a ski slope: Yellow (the easiest), Green, Blue, and Purple (the "what on earth is happening" category).
The trick isn't just knowing what the words mean. It's knowing how they're being manipulated. For example, a word like "HAM" might seem like it belongs with "TURKEY" and "ROAST BEEF" in a "Deli Meats" category. But then you see "CLOVER" and "ACTOR." Suddenly, you realize "HAM" belongs with "CLOVER" and "CLUB" in a "Types of Leaves" or "Cards" category. This is the "overlap" strategy. The NYT editors deliberately place five or six words that could fit one category, forcing you to deduce which four are the correct ones based on the remaining words.
Why Your Brain Fails at the Purple Category
The Purple category is usually the one that makes people throw their phones. It’s rarely about definitions. Instead, it’s about wordplay or "fill-in-the-blank" logic. Think about things like "Words that start with a Greek letter" or "___ Cake."
You're not looking for what the word is. You're looking for what the word does.
Take a word like "Pony." On its own, it's a horse. In a Purple category, it might be part of "Pony Tail," "Pony Express," and "Pony Up." If you're stuck on the literal meaning of the word, you're toast. Expert players often work backward. They look for the weirdest word on the board—something like "METER"—and ask themselves: "What are all the ways this word is used?" Is it a parking meter? A poetic meter? A metric unit? By identifying the most flexible word, you can often spot the theme of the hardest category before you even touch the screen.
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Navigating the Red Herrings
Let’s talk about the 5-word trap. This is the most common way New York Times connection clues trip up daily players. The editor will give you five words that all relate to, say, "Space."
- MARS
- JUPITER
- SATURN
- EARTH
- GUMDROP
Okay, maybe not gumdrop. But they'll throw in "MILKY WAY." Now you have five "Space" things. You can't click all five. One of them belongs somewhere else. Maybe "MARS" is part of a "Candy Bar" category with "MILKY WAY," "SNICKERS," and "MOUNDS." If you blindly click the first four planets you see, you lose a life. It's about patience. You have to look at the entire board before making your first move. Truly. If you don't scan all sixteen words, you are playing a guessing game, not a logic game.
The Rise of the "Meta" Clue
In 2025 and 2026, we've seen a shift toward more cultural and "meta" clues. It’s no longer just "Types of Dogs." Now, we’re seeing categories like "Things found in a New York Times crossword" or "Homophones of numbers." This requires a different kind of lateral thinking.
The complexity has scaled because the player base has gotten so good. When the game first launched in beta back in mid-2023, the clues were relatively straightforward. Now? They expect you to know your Palindromes, your Roman Numerals, and your obscure 90s fashion trends. It’s a trivia game disguised as a vocabulary test.
How to Beat the Grid Every Morning
Stop clicking immediately. Seriously. Just stop.
The biggest mistake is seeing a connection and hitting "Submit" within five seconds. You’ve got to sit there. Let your eyes go slightly out of focus. Look for prefixes. Look for suffixes. Does "BOOK" go with "MARK" or "CASE"? Or is it "POCKETBOOK"?
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I’ve found that the best way to handle a tough board is to "shuffle." That little shuffle button is your best friend. Our brains are wired to find patterns based on proximity. If "CAT" and "DOG" are next to each other, you'll think "Pets." If you shuffle and "CAT" moves next to "NIP" and "NAP," your brain resets. It breaks the visual bias that the editors sometimes use to lead you astray.
Real Examples of Recent Brutal Categories
Remember the day they had "Words that are also Periodic Table symbols"?
- LEAD (Pb)
- IRON (Fe)
- GOLD (Au)
- TIN (Sn)
That seems easy, right? Except they also had "PHELPS," "LEDECKY," and "SPITZ" on the board. You’re thinking "Olympic Swimmers," and you want to put "GOLD" in there. But "GOLD" was needed for the elements. If you put "GOLD" with the swimmers, you'd never solve the elements group. This is the "interlocking" puzzle design that makes the NYT version superior to the knock-offs. Every word is a load-bearing wall. If you move one, the whole structure might collapse.
Is the Game Getting Too Obscure?
There’s a valid critique that the game is becoming a bit too "insider-y." If a category relies on knowing specific slang from a specific decade or niche hobbies like knitting or sailing, is it still a fair word game?
Usually, the NYT balances this by making the other three categories accessible. If the Purple category is "Parts of a Sailboat" (Halyard, Jib, Mainsheet, Boom), they’ll usually make the Yellow category something very simple like "Colors" or "Kitchen Utensils." This ensures that even if you don't know a "Jib" from a "Jab," you can solve the rest of the board and get the hard one by default.
That’s the "Process of Elimination" strategy. It’s the most reliable way to win. If you can solve Yellow, Green, and Blue, the Purple category solves itself. You don't even have to know why those four words go together. You just have to know they're the only ones left.
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Common Misconceptions About Connections
Some people think the position of the words on the grid matters before you start. It doesn't. The initial layout is randomized, though occasionally it feels like the "red herrings" are placed near each other to tempt you.
Another myth is that there’s a "timer" affecting your score. There isn't. You can stare at that screen for six hours if you want. Some of my most satisfying wins have come after I closed the app, went for a walk, and suddenly realized that "BRIDGE" wasn't a structure, but a part of a nose.
Actionable Strategy for Your Next Game
If you want to stop losing your streaks, you need a system. Don't just wing it.
- The 30-Second Rule: Spend the first 30 seconds doing nothing but reading every single word out loud. Don't touch the screen.
- Identify the "Multi-Taskers": Find a word that could fit into three different groups. (e.g., "STICK" could be a verb, a piece of wood, or part of "LIPSTICK"). Hold off on using that word until you find its partners.
- The "Sound It Out" Method: Read the words with a prefix or suffix in mind. Say them with "Box" at the end. "Toolbox," "Shadowbox," "Gearbox." If it works for four words, you've found a group.
- Work from the Hardest Down: If you can spot a "Purple" style connection early (like a wordplay or hidden theme), lock it in. It clears the "noise" from the board and makes the straightforward categories easier to see.
- Use Shuffling Tactically: If you’ve found three words but can't find the fourth, shuffle. Seeing the words in new positions often triggers a different linguistic association.
Connections isn't about how many words you know. It's about how many ways you can look at the same word. It’s a lesson in perspective. Tomorrow morning, when you see that grid, remember: the first thing you see is probably a trap. Look deeper.
To keep your edge, try to categorize things in your everyday life. When you’re at the grocery store, look at the items and think of four things that share a "hidden" connection that isn't just "food." It sounds nerdy, because it is. But it's also how you stop the NYT from breaking your heart at breakfast.
Look at the words as shapes, as sounds, and as double-meanings. The more you play, the more you start to "see" like the editors. You'll start noticing when they're trying to bait you into a "5-word trap." You'll start recognizing the rhythm of the Purple category. And eventually, you'll find that the hardest clues aren't the ones with the biggest words, but the ones with the simplest words used in the most creative ways.
Go slow. Think laterally. And for heaven's sake, don't waste your guesses on "Space" until you're sure "MARS" isn't a candy bar.