You know that feeling. You've got three words selected. Your finger is hovering over the fourth. You click "Submit" on the NYT Connections grid, and the screen does that little annoying shimmy. A small, gray bubble pops up at the top: Very very close.
It’s a taunt. Honestly, it feels like the game is sticking its tongue out at you.
The New York Times Games suite, led by the juggernaut Wordle and the increasingly popular Connections, has created a specific kind of modern anxiety. When the interface tells you that you're "very very close," it’s mathematically specific. It means you have three out of the four correct items for a category. You are exactly one swap away from glory or a strikeout. But in the heat of a Thursday morning puzzle, that "one swap" feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack of red herrings.
The Mechanics of the Very Very Close NYT Prompt
Let’s be real. Wyna Liu, the editor of Connections, is a genius at misdirection. The "very very close" message isn't just a status update; it’s a psychological pivot point.
When you see that message, your brain does two things. First, it confirms you’re on the right track. You found a "cluster." Second, it introduces a brutal variable: which one of these four doesn't belong? Most players immediately assume the three words they are "sure" about are correct and start hunting for a replacement for the fourth. That is exactly how you lose.
Sometimes, the word you were most confident in is actually the red herring.
Connections is built on overlapping sets. A word like "BRIDGE" could be a part of a guitar, a card game, a dental fixture, or something you cross over water. If the category is "Parts of a Guitar" (Bridge, Nut, Fret, Pickup) and you’ve selected Bridge, Fret, Pickup, and... let's say "String," the game might tell you you’re very very close NYT style because "String" is too generic, or perhaps it belongs to a "Things with Bows" category.
Why We Obsess Over the Gray Bubble
There is a specific dopamine hit associated with the NYT gaming app. Since its launch in mid-2023, Connections has become the second most-played game in the Times' portfolio. The "very very close" feedback loop is a huge part of that. It provides just enough "hot/cold" feedback to keep you from quitting, but not enough to make it easy.
Think about the "One Away" mechanic in The Price Is Right. It's the same psychological pull. You have the pieces; you just haven't arranged them.
Experts in game design call this "near-miss" psychology. Studies, including those published in journals like Addiction (though we’re talking about word puzzles here, not slot machines), show that a near-miss stimulates the same areas of the brain as a win. It encourages "persistence." In plain English? It makes you want to try again immediately.
Strategies for When You're One Away
So, you’ve hit the wall. You’re one away. What do you actually do?
First, stop clicking. Seriously.
The biggest mistake players make after seeing the very very close NYT message is "rapid-firing" guesses. You only get four mistakes. If you’ve already used two or three, a single "very very close" can lead to a quick "Game Over" if you just start swapping words at random.
Look for the "Overlaps"
Look at your four words. Is there one that could easily fit into a different category?
Let's look at a real-world example from a past puzzle. Imagine the words are:
- HAM
- CHEESE
- RYE
- CLUB
You submit them. You're thinking: "Sandwiches." The game says you're very very close.
Now you have to pivot. Is "CLUB" actually part of "Suits in a Deck of Cards"? Is "HAM" actually "An actor who overacts"? If you see another word on the board like "BREAD" or "HOAGIE," you might realize that "CLUB" was the intruder, even though it fit your internal logic perfectly.
The "Reset" Technique
Many high-level players suggest deselecting everything. Walk away for five minutes. When you come back, don't look at the words you just guessed. Look at the words you haven't touched. Often, the missing piece of your "very very close" puzzle is hiding in plain sight, masquerading as a word you thought you didn't know.
The Cultural Phenomenon of the "Near Miss"
The NYT crossword used to be the gold standard, but Connections has captured a different demographic. It’s more about lateral thinking than rote knowledge. It’s about how you organize the world.
When people share their "grids" on social media—those little colored squares—the stories they tell are often about the "one away" moments. We don't brag about the easy wins. We complain about the "Purple" category that felt impossible or the "Blue" category where we were very very close NYT editors' targets.
There's a community aspect to this frustration. Every morning at roughly 3:00 AM ET, a wave of people across the globe hits the same wall. They see the same "very very close" prompt. It's a shared friction.
Is the Game Getting Harder?
There’s a lot of chatter on Reddit and Twitter (X) about "difficulty spikes." People feel like the "very very close" prompts are appearing more often because the categories are becoming more esoteric.
While the NYT hasn't officially confirmed a shift in difficulty, the nature of a daily puzzle is that it must evolve. If the patterns stayed the same, we’d solve it in thirty seconds. The "very very close" feedback is the game's way of acknowledging that you've bypassed the simple definitions and are now wrestling with the nuanced ones.
It’s the difference between seeing "Apple, Banana, Orange" and seeing "Apple, Windows, Alphabet." One is fruit; one is tech conglomerates. If the fourth word is "Meta," and you picked "Lemon," you're "very very close," but you're in the wrong world.
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Practical Steps to Mastering the Grid
If you want to stop seeing that gray bubble and start seeing the category colors, you need a system.
- Don't Submit the First Four You See. Almost every Connections grid has "decoy" categories. These are four words that look like they belong together but are split across two or three different actual categories.
- Say the Words Out Loud. Sometimes, the connection is phonetic (homophones). If you’re just reading them, you’ll miss that "WAIT" and "WEIGHT" are linked.
- Identify the "Purple" First. The purple category is the most abstract. It’s usually "Words that follow X" or "Fill in the blank." If you can spot the purple word that doesn't fit your current "very very close" group, you’ve found your intruder.
- Track Your Mistakes. If the game tells you you're "very very close," and you swap Word A for Word B and it still says you're "very very close," you now know that both Word A and Word B are likely incorrect for that specific group—or they both belong, and the error lies in the other three words.
Moving Beyond the Prompt
The very very close NYT alert is a tool, not a punishment. It’s the game giving you a nudge. It says: "You're smart, you've got the vision, but you're being a little bit lazy with your definitions."
Next time you see it, take a breath. Don't let the "one away" panic take over. Usually, the word you need is the one you’ve been ignoring because you were so sure it belonged somewhere else. That's the beauty of the game. It forces you to re-categorize your own reality, one four-word set at a time.
Keep your mistakes low, your lateral thinking high, and remember: being "very very close" is just a prelude to getting it right.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Audit Your Errors: Tomorrow, when you play, don't just click through. If you get a "very very close" message, write down the four words you used. If you fail the puzzle, go back and see which of those four was the "imposter." You’ll start to see Wyna Liu's patterns.
- Use the Shuffle Button: It’s there for a reason. Sometimes a "very very close" happens because the words are physically positioned near each other on the screen, tricking your brain into a false association. Shuffle the board to break the visual spell.
- Check the "Connections Bot": After you finish, the NYT often provides a breakdown of the "difficulty" and "luck" involved in your solve. Use this to see if your "very very close" was a common trap or a unique mistake.