Waking up to the NYT Connections 12 16 24 board felt like a personal attack for a lot of us. Honestly, some days the New York Times crossword editors choose peace, and other days, like December 16, 2024, they choose absolute chaos. You probably stared at your phone screen for ten minutes before even making a first guess.
It happens.
The game has become a cultural staple because it taps into how our brains categorize the world, but on this specific date, the overlap was brutal. We aren't just talking about a few tricky words. We are talking about linguistic traps that made even seasoned Wordle survivors sweat.
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The NYT Connections 12 16 24 Puzzle Breakdown
If you look back at the grid, the words were deceptively simple on their own. That’s the trick. You’ve got words that look like they belong in three different places at once.
The yellow category—usually the straightforward one—revolved around Ways to Walk. We saw terms like MUMBLE, STAMMER, STUTTER, and FALTER. Wait, no. That’s the speech one. See? Even describing it gets confusing. The actual "easiest" group was Spoken Hesitations. It included words like HEM, HAW, STAMMER, and STUTTER.
Then you had the movement group. This is where people lost their lives (their digital game lives, anyway). Words like LIMP, STUMBLE, WADDLE, and LUMBER all fought for your attention.
Why this specific date was a nightmare
The overlap was the real killer. When you see LIMP and STUTTER, your brain might jump to "disabilities" or "physical traits," but the NYT avoids those sensitive groupings. Instead, they focused on the mechanics of the action.
Wyna Liu, the editor behind these puzzles, has often mentioned in interviews that the goal is to lead the player down a "red herring" path. On NYT Connections 12 16 24, the red herring was definitely the "Physical Struggles" vibe. If you tried to group things by how "difficult" they were to do, you probably ran out of guesses fast.
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Decoding the Purple Category
Everyone hates the purple category. Or they love it because it makes them feel like a genius. There's no middle ground.
On this day, the purple category was ____ Gold.
Think about the words: FOOL, POT, RUSH, and LEAF.
It’s clever. It’s also incredibly annoying if you don’t see it immediately. If you were looking at LEAF and thinking about trees or paper, you were doomed. If you saw POT and thought about cooking or, well, other things, you missed the connection to the end of the rainbow.
- FOOL'S Gold (Pyrite)
- POT of Gold
- GOLD Rush
- GOLD Leaf
The beauty—and the frustration—of the Connections 12 16 24 puzzle was how FOOL could have easily fit into a category about "Idiots" or "Jesters" if the board had been built differently.
The Logic of Blue: Things that Fold
The blue category is usually the "Specific Knowledge" or "Wordplay" group. On December 16, it was all about things that you can literally fold.
- MAP
- CHAIR
- LAUNDRY
- TENT
This was arguably the most "fair" category of the bunch, but because the other words were so distracting, many players saved this for last or missed it entirely while trying to figure out why MUMBLE didn't fit with STAMMER.
Actually, MUMBLE wasn't even in this puzzle. I just threw that in to see if you were paying attention, because that's exactly what the game does to you. It puts a word in your head that should be there, and you spend three minutes looking for it.
Psychological Traps in Connections
Psychologists actually study this kind of thing. It's called "Functional Fixedness." It’s a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used. In the context of NYT Connections 12 16 24, your brain sees CHAIR and thinks "furniture." It doesn't immediately think "collapsible object."
Breaking that bias is the only way to win.
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You have to look at the word LEAF and refuse to see a tree. You have to see a thin sheet of metal or a page in a book. If you can't pivot your perspective, the blue and purple categories will destroy your streak.
How to Beat the Next Big Grid
If you got wrecked by the Connections 12 16 24 board, don't feel bad. Even the pros have off days. The trick is to stop clicking.
Seriously. Stop.
Most people lose because they find three words that work and "guess-click" the fourth. The NYT editors know this. They specifically design the board so that three words fit perfectly into two different categories.
Strategies for the Future
- Don't click until you have all four. If you find a group of three, look for two more words that could fit. If you find five words for one category, you haven't found the category yet.
- Say the words out loud. Sometimes hearing the word helps you find the "hidden" meaning, especially for the "Words that start with..." or "Blank ___" categories.
- Check for parts of speech. If you have three verbs and one noun, something is wrong. Usually, categories stay within the same grammatical family, though the purple group loves to break this rule.
- Look for compound words. Words like RUSH and POT are often parts of larger phrases.
The NYT Connections 12 16 24 puzzle was a masterclass in overlap. It forced players to choose between synonyms and phrases. It’s the kind of game that reminds you how weird the English language actually is.
When you're facing a board that looks impossible, take a step back. The answer isn't usually the first thing you see. It's the third or fourth layer of meaning that counts.
Moving Forward With Your Streak
To keep your daily streak alive, start by identifying the most "flexible" words. In the Connections 12 16 24 grid, POT and LEAF were the chameleons. They could be anything. Secure the most rigid category first—usually the yellow "synonyms" group—to clear the board.
Once the "easy" words are gone, the remaining 12 or 8 words become much easier to parse. If you’re down to the final eight and you’re stuck, try the "word association" game. Ignore the screen and just think of every phrase that uses the word FOOL. You’ll hit FOOL'S GOLD eventually.
Keep your head up. Tomorrow is a new grid, and it might be even harder. Or it might be a breeze. That’s the game.
Actionable Next Steps
- Practice Lateral Thinking: Use apps like "Lateral" or even basic riddle books to train your brain to see multiple meanings for single words.
- Review Past Boards: Use the NYT archive to look at previous "purple" categories. Patterns emerge over time, like the common use of "Words that sound like letters" or "Hidden body parts."
- Slow Down: Spend at least two minutes looking at the board before making a single selection. This prevents the "one away" trap that ruins most games.