You know the feeling. It’s 8:00 AM, you’ve got your coffee, and you open the New York Times Games app thinking you’re about to breeze through the grid. Then you see it. Colander.
Immediately, your brain goes to "pasta." Or maybe "kitchen." You look for a pot, a pan, maybe a whisk. But Wyna Liu—the digital mastermind behind the daily Connections puzzle—is rarely that kind of generous. When the word colander pops up in an NYT Connections grid, it’s usually the beginning of a very frustrating five minutes. Or ten. Or twenty if you're stubborn.
The Problem with Kitchen Tools
Connections is a game of misdirection. It’s basically a psychological test disguised as a word game. A colander is fundamentally a strainer. It has holes. It’s metal or plastic. It sits in your sink.
But in the world of the NYT crossword and its sister games, a word like colander is a "chameleon." It can belong to a category of things with holes, things used in Italian cooking, or even more abstract groups like "words that start with a type of bird" (though "col" isn't a bird, you get the point).
People get stuck because they see the literal object. They think about the spaghetti they made last night. They don't think about the structure of the word or the function in an abstract sense. This is exactly how the NYT editors trap you. They want you to lock into one meaning while the actual solution is hiding in plain sight, connected to three other words that seemingly have nothing to do with boiling water.
When Colander Met the Grid
Let's look at how this actually plays out in the wild. In past puzzles, words like colander have been grouped with items like a sieve, a riddle (yes, that’s a real tool), and a screen.
That's a classic "Yellow" or "Green" category. It's straightforward once you see it, but when the other twelve words in the grid include things like "mystery" or "puzzle" or "filter," your brain starts screaming. Is "riddle" a brain teaser or a sifting tool?
This is the "crossover" effect. The NYT team loves using words that serve as bridges between two possible categories.
Why we fail at these connections
- Fixedness: We see a kitchen tool; we want more kitchen tools. If there isn't a "spatula" or "ladle," we panic.
- Overthinking: Sometimes a colander is just something with holes.
- Vocabulary Gaps: Not everyone knows that a "riddle" is a large sieve used for soil or grain. If you don't know that, the colander NYT Connections link remains invisible.
Honestly, the game is as much about what you exclude as what you include. You have to be willing to kill your darlings. If "colander" isn't working with "pot," you have to throw "pot" away. Maybe "pot" belongs with "jackpot" and "crockpot."
The Anatomy of a Hard Connections Puzzle
The New York Times doesn't just pick words at random. There is a specific rhythm to the week. Mondays are generally "I can do this in my sleep" easy. By the time Thursday or Friday rolls around, the difficulty spikes.
If you see colander on a Saturday, be afraid.
On those days, the category might not be "Kitchen Tools." It might be "Things that are Holy/Holey." This is where the NYT gets cheeky. They'll put colander next to Swiss Cheese, a Golf Course, and maybe a Donut.
You see "Donut" and "Swiss Cheese" and you think "Food."
You see "Golf Course" and you think "Sports."
You see "Colander" and you go back to the kitchen.
It takes a specific kind of mental flexibility to realize that the only thing connecting a piece of sporting real estate to a kitchen strainer is the presence of empty space. That's the brilliance of the game. It forces you to strip away the primary meaning of a word and look only at its physical or conceptual traits.
How to Beat the Grid Next Time
If you’re staring at colander and three other words that don't make sense, stop. Just stop. Don't click anything.
Look for synonyms. A colander is a strainer, a sifter, a leaker, a drainer.
Look at the physical shape. It’s a bowl, it’s metal, it has handles, it has holes.
Look at the usage. You use it with pasta, berries, vegetables.
If you see the word "Sponge," "Swiss Cheese," and "Screen," you’ve found your "Holey" group. If you see "Fine-tooth comb," "Sieve," and "Filter," you’ve found your "Thorough Investigation" group.
The "One-Away" Trap
We've all been there. You select four words, hit submit, and the little bubble says "One away!"
This is the most dangerous moment in NYT Connections. Usually, this happens because you've found a legitimate connection that isn't the intended one. You might have found four things in a kitchen, but the puzzle wants "Things with Holes." One of your kitchen items—the colander—belongs in the "Holes" group, and something else you left out belongs in the "Kitchen" group.
It's a shell game.
The Cultural Impact of the Daily Grid
It’s weirdly personal, isn't it? People post their colored squares on X (formerly Twitter) and Threads like they’re medals of honor. When a word like colander ruins a streak, the collective groan from the internet is audible.
There are entire subreddits dedicated to complaining about the "Purple" category. Purple is usually the "wordplay" category—things like "Words that follow 'Stone'" or "Parts of a Heart." Luckily, colander usually stays in the Blue or Green tier. It’s a concrete noun. It represents a physical object. That usually makes it safer, but no less tricky when the distractors are laid out well.
Wyna Liu has mentioned in interviews that the goal is to find that "aha!" moment. It shouldn’t be impossible, but it should feel like a slight stretch of the brain. The colander clue is the perfect example of that stretch. It sits right on the edge of "obvious" and "obscure."
Real-World Strategies for Puzzles
- Say the words out loud. Sometimes hearing "Colander, Screen, Sieve, Filter" makes the connection click in a way that just looking at them doesn't.
- Walk away. Your brain continues to process the grid in the background (incubation). When you come back, you might suddenly see that "Colander" and "Swiss Cheese" are twins.
- Ignore the colors. Don't try to guess what's "Easy" or "Hard." Just find a group. Any group.
- Watch for the plurals. If three words are plural and "Colander" is singular, it might still fit, but it's a hint that the connection is about the object and not a linguistic pattern.
The Verdict on Colander
At the end of the day, colander NYT Connections puzzles are a reminder that our brains love patterns, even when those patterns lead us off a cliff. We want the world to make sense. We want the kitchen tools to stay in the kitchen.
But the New York Times Games section isn't the real world. It's a playground of semantics. The next time you see that word, don't think about dinner. Think about what the word is hiding.
Is it a vessel? Is it a strainer? Or is it just a bunch of holes held together by a little bit of plastic?
🔗 Read more: How Ninja Time Released Codes Actually Work in Modern Gaming
Once you figure that out, the rest of the grid usually falls into place. Unless, of course, there’s a word like "Caper" or "Draft" nearby. Then you’re on your own.
Actionable Steps for Connections Mastery
- Practice Lateral Thinking: Use apps like "Semantle" or "Contexto" to train your brain to see how words relate to each other outside of direct definitions.
- Analyze Your Misses: When you lose a game, don't just close the app. Look at the categories you missed. Did you fall for a "Red Herring"? Identifying which distractors got you will help you spot them tomorrow.
- Broaden Your Vocabulary: Read more long-form journalism. Words like "Riddle" (the sieve) or "Mews" (the street) often pop up in NYT games and are common stumbling blocks for younger players or non-native speakers.
- Track the Themes: The NYT often runs themes. If it's a holiday, expect the "Green" or "Blue" categories to lean into that. If it’s just a random Tuesday, look for those abstract "Words that start with..." patterns.