How to Play Connections
Sixteen words, four hidden groups, four mistakes allowed. Here’s how the puzzle is built, and how to take it apart.
The rules
- Pick four words you think share a connection and press Submit.
- If you’re right, the group locks in with its color and category name.
- If you’re wrong, you lose one of four lives. “One away” means three of your four are right.
- Find all four groups before your fourth mistake to win.
What the colors mean
Yellow is the most direct group. Green and blue get progressively trickier. Purple is almost always wordplay: hidden words, fill-in-the-blank phrases, homophones. You don’t have to solve them in order.
Try a practice board
An original mini example. One word here is a deliberate red herring.
Tactics that work
Count the candidates
Before submitting, list every word that could fit a category. If five or six words seem to fit “fish”, the extras belong elsewhere, and finding their real home is often the fastest way in.
Hunt purple early
Scan for words that could precede or follow the same word, contain a smaller word, or sound like something else. Purple is hard to see but, once spotted, it’s usually airtight, and removing four words simplifies the rest.
Solve last group for free
Once three groups are in, the last four words are automatically right. So when you’re torn between two groups, lock in the one you’re surest of and let the leftovers resolve themselves.
Use a hint on one word, not a category
Knowing a single word in a group keeps most of the puzzle yours. That’s how our Connections hints for today are arranged: a nudge, then one word, and only then the category.
Questions
How many groups are in Connections?
Four groups of four, drawn from a 4×4 grid of sixteen words. Every word belongs to exactly one group.
What happens if I get “One away”?
Three of your four words belong together and one doesn’t. It still counts as a mistake, but it tells you to swap a single word.
Can I shuffle the board?
Yes. Shuffle rearranges the tiles without changing anything, which helps break the pull of words that happen to sit next to each other.
What kinds of purple groups are common?
Hidden words (each word contains an animal), words that precede or follow a common term (___ball), homophones, and anagrams.