NYT Connections Puzzle Strategy — How to Win Every Day

The New York Times Connections puzzle presents 16 words and asks you to group them into four categories of four words each. The categories are color-coded by difficulty: yellow (easiest), green, blue, and purple (hardest). You have four guesses before the game ends.

Start with Your Safest Category

Begin with the category you are most confident about. Correct groupings remove eight words from consideration, making the remaining three categories easier to identify. Starting with a wrong guess wastes one of your four attempts and potentially misleads your analysis of remaining words.

Watch for the Trap Words

The puzzle designers intentionally include words that seem to fit multiple categories. A word like BRUSH might appear to fit in art supplies, cleaning tools, or "things that touch," but belongs only in one official category. When a word seems obvious in one category, ask yourself whether it might belong in another before committing.

The Purple Category is Always Tricky

The purple category (hardest) typically involves wordplay, cultural references, or unconventional groupings. "___ of the Year" (where each word fills the blank), words that follow a specific preposition, or phrases where each word contains a hidden word are all common purple constructs. When you cannot identify the pattern, this is likely where the difficulty lies.

Process of Elimination

If you have identified three strong categories, the fourth is determined by elimination. Trust the process: if you are certain about yellow, green, and blue, the remaining four words must be purple regardless of how confusing they seem.