How to Play New York Times Connections
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Connections is a short, daily game from the New York Times Games. This word-grouping game is similar to Wordle, another word game that has been very popular for the NYT. This game is played a little differently, though; instead of pitting players against a single mystery word, it gives out sixteen words that need to be grouped into four different categories. Connections is a pretty simple game once word puzzle fans learn how to play.
How to Play Connections by the New York Times Games
The Connections puzzle game begins with a board of sixteen words. Each word is one of four in one of four different mystery categories. In order to play, start by choosing four words that seem to be in the same category, then hit submit.
For example, the above is a category of four words that are each kinds of beans: LIMA, PINTO, KIDNEY, and FAVA. Select each of these four words that belong in the category together, then press submit to lock in the answer.
If the answer is incorrect, the game board will quiver a little and reset. If the answer is correct, the related words will all group at the top and change colors. There are four different colors of categories:
- Yellow is the easiest grouping to guess.
- Green is a medium difficulty grouping to guess.
- Blue is a hard grouping.
- Purple is the least straightforward, trickiest grouping.
Players have four total guesses to get all the categories correct. After the game is completed, the NYT Games provides an easy-to-share, spoiler-free board to post to social media that looks like this:
Some Tips and Tricks for Winning NYT Connections
While the New York Times game called Connections is pretty straightforward, there are a couple of neat little tricks that can be helpful to winning every day. Here are some things players might not know about this simple puzzle game.
- If the player is close, but one of their words is incorrect, the site will have a small pop-up in the upper middle part of the screen, declaring that the player was only “One Away” from guessing the answer.
- There is a Shuffle button that mixes up the order of the words, helping players who might be getting caught up in how they are lined up.
- Connections groupings are usually one of the following: A group of items that have the same overarching category, like CROPS (PEPPER, CORN, BEANS, WHEAT) or CITIES BEGINNING WITH AN L (LAGOS, LIMERICK, LINCOLN, LUXOR). They can also be groups of words that all have the same prefix or suffix, like FIRE ___ (SALE, ESCAPE, HYDRANT, PLACE) or ___ PAPER (BUTCHER, SCRAP, TOILET, WAX). They can also be groups of words that all mean the same thing, like four different words that all mean ORIGIN (GENESIS, GERM, SEED, SOURCE).
- Usually, there are a couple of words that can be in multiple categories.
- Players don’t have to guess the categories in order of easiest to hardest; they can be done in any order in this mobile puzzle game.
- Connections can be played in-browser on just about any device, but it can also be played through the NYT’s iOS app.
Connections is available in-browser for Macs, mobile, and PC.
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