NYT Connections Strategy Guide: How to Solve It Every Day

NYT Connections looks simple: sixteen words, four groups of four, and you can make four mistakes before the game ends. Most people still lose streaks to it, because the puzzle is built to make the obvious answer wrong. This guide shows how the puzzle is designed, the step-by-step method we use every day, and the patterns that keep coming back in the hardest groups.

How Connections Works

The New York Times launched Connections in June 2023, and a new puzzle appears every day. You select four words you think belong together and submit them. If you are right, the group locks in with its color and category name. If you are wrong, you lose one of your four mistakes. When three of your four words are correct, the game tells you that you are one away, which is a useful clue in itself.

Each puzzle has one group of each color, and the colors show difficulty:

• Yellow is the most straightforward group, usually plain synonyms or a clear category.
• Green is a step harder, often a category with one or two unusual members.
• Blue often needs specific knowledge: names, brands, jargon or trivia.
• Purple is wordplay. The link is usually about the letters or sound of the words, not their meaning.

Why the Obvious Group Is Usually a Trap

Every puzzle includes red herrings: five or six words that seem to fit one category when only four of them actually do. The extra words belong to other groups. That is the whole design. If you can see a group of four straight away, look for a fifth word that also fits before you submit.

A real example from Connections #1232: THUMB, PALM, FINGERS and ELBOW sat on the same board. They look like a perfect body parts group, but there was no body parts group at all. Each one belonged to a different category. In #1229, HILT, GRIP, HANDLE and GUARD all looked like parts of a sword, and again the sword group did not exist.

A Step-by-Step Method That Protects Your Streak

1. Read all sixteen words before you touch anything. Say each one in your head and note any word with two meanings. Words like SHELL, BOOST or SAFETY are almost always doing double duty.
2. Find the most specific words first. A word that can only mean one thing is easier to place than a common word with five meanings. WAGON WHEEL or INTERSTITIAL can only go in a few places, so start there.
3. Solve the group with the fewest decoys. Do not start with the category that has six candidates. Start with the one where exactly four words fit and nothing else does.
4. Use the shuffle button. The starting layout can put related words next to each other in ways that mislead you. Shuffling breaks those false patterns and often shows a link you missed.
5. Leave purple for last. Once twelve words are gone, the last four are the purple group by default. Many players solve purple without ever spotting the trick.
6. Treat one away as information. If you get that message, three of your four are right. Swap only one word, and choose the word with the most other possible meanings.

Purple Group Patterns to Recognize

Purple feels random, but it reuses a small set of tricks. Knowing them makes it much easier to see the link.

Fill in the blank

All four words go with the same extra word before or after them. In #1231 the answer was ___ BAR: CANDY, SALAD, SPACE and SPORTS. When four unrelated words refuse to group, try adding common words like BAR, BALL, BOX, HOUSE or LINE to each one.

Unfinished words

Each word is the start of a longer word. In #1229, BLANK, COMFORT, PILL and SHE became BLANKET, COMFORTER, PILLOW and SHEET. Look for words that feel slightly odd or short on their own.

Hidden words

A smaller word is hidden inside each entry, often at the start or end: an animal, a body part, a number or a name. Read each word slowly, letter by letter, and look for anything that pops out.

Sounds and homophones

Some groups depend on how a word sounds, not how it is spelled: words that sound like letters, like other words, or like names. Saying the words out loud helps more than staring at them.

Shared actions

Sometimes the link is one verb that applies to all four. In #1232 the purple group was things that can be snapped: FINGERS, FOOTBALL, GLOW STICK and RUBBER BAND.

Blue Group Patterns

Blue usually tests knowledge rather than wordplay. Common types are people who share a first or last name (fictional Toms, for example: RIPLEY, SAWYER, SWIFT and THUMB), brands, sports positions, terms from one job or hobby, and famous titles. If a word looks like a surname, ask what else it might be the surname of.

A Worked Example: Puzzle #1232

Here is how the method plays out on a real board. The sixteen words in #1232 included BOOST, PALM, POCKET, SWIPE, BOW TIE, ELBOW, SHELL, WAGON WHEEL, RIPLEY, SAWYER, SWIFT, THUMB, FINGERS, FOOTBALL, GLOW STICK and RUBBER BAND.

Step one is to note the decoys. THUMB, PALM, FINGERS and ELBOW look like body parts, and POCKET and FOOTBALL both have American football meanings. Neither of those groups turned out to exist. Step two is to find the most specific words. WAGON WHEEL and BOW TIE are hard to place anywhere except pasta shapes, and once you see that, ELBOW and SHELL join them. SAWYER and RIPLEY point to fictional characters named Tom, which pulls in SWIFT and THUMB. With eight words gone, BOOST, PALM, POCKET and SWIPE read clearly as ways to steal, and the last four are the snapping group by default.

Notice that the body parts decoy fell apart on its own once the specific groups were solved. That is the method working as intended: start where there is no doubt, and let the doubtful words sort themselves out.

Common Mistakes

Submitting the first group you see

The first group you notice is often the decoy the editor wanted you to notice. Check for a fifth fit before you submit.

Ignoring second meanings

MOBILE can be a phone or a hanging sculpture. GUARD can be a football position or part of a sword. The puzzle almost always uses the meaning you did not think of first.

Guessing to see what happens

Four mistakes go fast. If you are unsure, shuffle and think instead of testing a guess. A mistake costs more than a minute of thinking.

How to Get Better Over Time

The fastest way to improve is to look at old puzzles after you finish today's. You will start to notice the same tricks repeating, and you will recognize a fill-in-the-blank or a hidden word group in seconds. We break down every puzzle with hints, traps and a suggested solving order on our daily Connections answers page, so you can check your reasoning without spoiling the whole grid.

Building a bigger vocabulary helps too. Other daily games train the same skill of spotting links between words: see our Spelling Bee strategy guide and Quordle strategy guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many mistakes can you make in NYT Connections?

You can make four mistakes. On the fourth wrong guess the game ends and shows the answers.

What do the colors mean in Connections?

They show difficulty. Yellow is the most straightforward group, then green, then blue, and purple is the hardest, usually based on wordplay.

What does one away mean in Connections?

It means three of the four words you selected belong together and one does not. Swap out a single word rather than starting over.

What is the best strategy for Connections?

Read all sixteen words first, count how many words fit each possible category, solve the most specific group first, use the shuffle button, and leave the purple group for last.

Why is the purple group so hard?

Purple is usually about the letters or sound of the words rather than their meaning, such as words that all go before the same word, hidden words, or unfinished words.

Want hints without full spoilers? Every daily Connections post gives you a gentle nudge for each group first, then the category names, then the full answers, each behind its own click.