How to Play NYT Connections — Rules, Tips & Winning Strategy
NYT Connections is the word puzzle everyone's talking about. Learn how to play Connections, what the colour categories mean, and how to beat it every day.
How to Play NYT Connections — Rules, Tips & Winning Strategy
NYT Connections has quietly become the second-most-played New York Times game — right behind Wordle. And for good reason. It’s fast, clever, genuinely surprising, and deeply satisfying when you crack a tricky grouping.
But it can also be absolutely maddening when you’re convinced six words belong to the same category and can’t figure out which four to pick.
This guide explains how Connections works, what the colour system means, and — most importantly — how to think through the puzzle without making costly mistakes.
What Is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is a daily word puzzle created by editor Wyna Liu at The New York Times. It’s available free on the NYT website and through the NYT Games app.
The game shows you a 4×4 grid of 16 words. Your job is to sort those 16 words into four groups of four — each group sharing a hidden connection. The connection might be a category, a shared word they can all follow, a theme, or a piece of trivia.
You have four mistakes allowed before the puzzle ends. Use them wisely.
How to Play NYT Connections: Step by Step
Step 1: Read all 16 words carefully
Before tapping anything, read every word on the grid. The editors are deliberately trying to mislead you, placing words that seem to belong together in ways that are wrong. You need the full picture before you start grouping.
Step 2: Shuffle the board
Before making your first guess, hit the Shuffle button. Shuffling randomises the position of the words, which breaks any visual anchoring effect. The editors arrange the initial grid to create traps — shuffling removes those traps before you fall into them.
Step 3: Identify your most confident group first
Look for the grouping where you feel most certain about all four words. Don’t guess a group where you’re confident about three words and guessing on the fourth — that’s how mistakes happen.
Step 4: Select four words and submit
Tap each word to select it (it highlights). When you have four selected, press Submit. If the group is correct, the row locks in and shows its colour. If not, you get an “X” mark on your mistakes counter.
Step 5: Watch for the “One Away” hint
If you get a group wrong, Connections will sometimes tell you that you were “One away” — meaning three of your four selections were correct. This is a huge clue. Look at which word might be the odd one out and reconsider.
Step 6: Repeat until all four groups are found or you run out of mistakes
The Four Colour Categories — Explained
Every Connections puzzle has four groups, each assigned a colour that indicates difficulty:
🟨 Yellow — Easiest
The most straightforward category. Usually a simple, clear theme: “Things you find in a kitchen,” “Types of music,” “Words meaning happy.” If you see an obvious grouping of four, it’s probably yellow.
🟩 Green — Medium
Slightly trickier. Green categories often require a bit more lateral thinking — synonyms for a less-common concept, or a theme that’s slightly less obvious than yellow.
🟦 Blue — Hard
Blue requires genuine knowledge or clever thinking. These might be trivia-based (file extensions, capital cities, sports terms), or they involve wordplay that isn’t immediately obvious.
🟪 Purple — Hardest
Purple is where the editors have the most fun with you. Purple groups almost always involve wordplay, double meanings, or an abstract connection that seems completely left-field until the moment it clicks. Phrases where each word can precede or follow a specific word are common here — for example, four words that can all follow “FIRE” (PLACE, WORK, SIDE, TRUCK).
8 Tips to Win at NYT Connections
1. Always shuffle before guessing
The initial word arrangement is designed to mislead you. The NYT editors place words that look grouped together on purpose. A shuffle scrambles this trap.
2. Start with your most certain group
Don’t start with the purple group just because it’s the most interesting. Start with the one you’re most confident about. Getting a group off the board eliminates four words and makes the remaining 12 easier to group.
3. Look for the “connecting word” trick
Many purple and blue groups follow the pattern: “words that can all precede/follow ___.” For example, BACK, BLACK, BOOK, and WORM might all follow the word “NIGHT” (NIGHTBACK isn’t right, but NIGHTBACK → think differently). Watch for words that feel weirdly specific and might work as compound words or phrases.
4. Beware of red herrings — they’re intentional
The editors deliberately include words that look like they should go together but don’t. If you see four animals, you might assume they’re a group — but they might all be words that can follow “SEA” (HORSE, LION, BIRD, WEED). Question every grouping, especially the obvious ones.
5. Use the “One Away” hint
If you submit a wrong group and get “One away,” don’t panic — this is useful information. You had three right. Look at the word you least expected to be in that group and ask whether it belongs elsewhere.
6. Leave the purple group for last
Unless you’re completely certain about the purple group, work from yellow to green to blue to purple. As the board empties out, the purple group often becomes obvious by process of elimination.
7. Don’t be afraid to guess on your last mistake
You have four mistakes. If you’ve solved three groups and there’s only one left, you don’t need your remaining guesses — the last group is automatic. So your fourth mistake is effectively free. Use it to take a calculated risk if you’re unsure between two possible arrangements.
8. Learn the common NYT theme types
Over time, you’ll recognise recurring Connections formats. Common types include: synonyms for an emotion, things that follow/precede a word, types of a thing, things associated with a person or place, and homophones or near-homophones. Learning these patterns makes the purple group feel less random.
Using a Word Unscrambler for Connections
If you’re stuck on a grouping and a word seems to be a jumble of letters that might rearrange into something meaningful, our word unscrambler can help you find anagrams or check what words a set of letters can form.
Try our free word unscrambler →
It’s also useful when you suspect a purple group involves words that are all anagrams of each other, or words that spell something else when rearranged.
Example Walkthrough
Here’s a simplified example of how to approach a Connections puzzle:
Words: RAVEN, CROW, CARDINAL, BLUE, JAY, BEAR, HEAT, BUCK, ROBIN, MAVEN, EXPERT, AUTHORITY, PRO, STAR, WIZARD, BUFF
First pass observations:
- RAVEN, CROW, CARDINAL, JAY, ROBIN, BLUE — all birds, but there are six! Too many for one group of four.
- EXPERT, AUTHORITY, PRO, MAVEN, WIZARD, BUFF — all mean expert, but again six words.
This tells you some “birds” are being used for something else, and some “expert” words are in another group. Perhaps JAY and BLUE are sports teams (Toronto Blue Jays, Jacksonville Jaguars → no, think differently). Or perhaps CARDINAL, CROW, RAVEN, BEAR, BUCK, HEAT are all sports team names (Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns/Bears, etc.).
This is the trap. The birds aren’t a group — sports teams named after birds AND animals are. Work through the possibilities before committing.
FAQs
How many mistakes can you make in NYT Connections? Four. On your fifth mistake, the puzzle ends and all answers are revealed.
Is NYT Connections free? Yes. You can play for free on the NYT website without a subscription.
Does Connections have a practice mode? Not officially, but unofficial archives of past puzzles are available at sites like connections-game.io and similar fan-run archives.
What’s the hardest colour group? Purple, by design. It almost always involves wordplay, hidden connections, or cultural trivia that isn’t immediately obvious.
See Also
Published July 2024 | Word Games Guide