You know that feeling when you're staring at a grid of sixteen words and your brain just... stalls? It’s 9:00 AM, you’ve got your coffee, and for some reason, the New York Times is trying to convince you that a "squash" and a "racket" belong together, but only if you also find two other things used in a specific niche sport. This is the daily ritual for millions. Figuring out the categories for today’s connections isn't just about vocabulary; it’s a psychological battle against a guy named Wyna Liu who spends her professional life trying to outsmart you.
It’s hard. Honestly, it’s meant to be.
Connections has become a legitimate cultural phenomenon because it taps into how our brains categorize the world. We don't just see words; we see relationships. But the game doesn't play fair. It uses "red herrings"—those nasty little traps where a word looks like it fits in three different places. You see "Apple," "Orange," and "Banana," and your brain screams FRUIT! Then you realize "Apple" is actually part of "Tech Companies" and "Orange" is a "County in California." Suddenly, you’re down to two lives and feeling significantly less smart than you did five minutes ago.
The Science of Why We Get Stuck
The mechanics behind finding the right categories for today’s connections rely on something psychologists call "Functional Fixedness." This is a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used. In the context of a word game, it means you see the word "Lead" and you think of a heavy metal. You forget it could also mean "to guide" or even "the starring role in a play."
Your brain wants to take the path of least resistance. It grabs the most common definition and holds on for dear life. To beat the game, you have to break that grip.
Wyna Liu, the associate puzzle editor at the NYT, has mentioned in various interviews that the difficulty isn't just about obscure words. It’s about the overlap. The "Purple" category—famously the most difficult—often involves wordplay, homophones, or "fill-in-the-blank" logic. These aren't just groups of things; they are linguistic riddles. If you aren't looking for the way a word sounds or what word could precede it, you're going to miss the purple category every single time.
How the Difficulty Spikes
The game is structured in a gradient.
- Yellow: The straightforward stuff. Synonyms or very clear groups.
- Green: Slightly more specific, maybe requiring a bit of niche knowledge.
- Blue: This is where the overlap starts. You might find five words that fit here, but only four are "right."
- Purple: The wild card. This involves things like "Words that start with a body part" or "___ Cake."
If you find yourself identifying the yellow group instantly, don't submit it. Seriously. That’s the rookie mistake. If you submit the easy group first, you lose the ability to use those words as "anchors" for the harder categories. Sometimes, a word in the yellow group is actually the red herring for the blue group. You have to look at the board as a holistic puzzle, not four separate tasks.
Strategies for Decoding Categories for Today’s Connections
Stop clicking immediately.
The most successful players—the ones who post those perfect "no mistake" grids on social media—usually spend at least two minutes just looking. They are scanning for "crossover" words. If you see "Bass," is it the fish (Green/Yellow) or the instrument (Blue)? If there’s also "Flounder" and "Carp," it’s probably fish. But if there’s "Treble" and "Clef," you’ve got a music theme.
What if all those words are there?
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That’s the "Overlap Trap." You have to find the third potential category that uses one of those words to break the tie. It’s basically deductive reasoning under the guise of a vocabulary test.
Look for the "Outliers"
Sometimes the best way to find the categories for today’s connections is to find the weirdest word on the board. If the word "Spatula" is there, it’s probably not a synonym for anything else. It has a limited number of "friends" on the grid. Find those friends first. While everyone else is trying to figure out which four words mean "Happy," you should be looking at the one word that doesn't seem to mean anything at all.
Usually, that "weird" word is the key to the Purple or Blue category. Once you isolate the most difficult group, the rest of the board often collapses into place. It’s like a Jenga tower; pull the right piece, and the structure of the puzzle becomes obvious.
Why Some Days Feel Impossible
We’ve all had those days. You open the app, look at the sixteen words, and feel like you’re reading a foreign language. This usually happens when the editor uses "Internal Logic" categories. These are groups that don't rely on what the words mean, but on what they are.
Examples of this include:
- Palindromes (Mom, Racecar, Noon).
- Words that are also US States when you add a letter.
- Words that rhyme with a specific number.
- Homophones of animals.
This is where the "Expert" level of the game lives. If you are only looking at definitions, you are playing at a disadvantage. You have to look at the letters themselves. You have to say the words out loud. Sometimes, the category for today’s connections is hidden in the phonetics, not the dictionary.
The Evolution of the Daily Puzzle
The New York Times didn't invent this format—the British show Only Connect has been doing the "Connecting Wall" for years—but they perfected the "vibe" of it for a mobile audience. Since its beta launch in mid-2023, Connections has shifted from being a simple word-association game to a daily psychological profile of the user base.
The social aspect is massive. Because everyone gets the same board, the "shared struggle" creates a community. When a particularly nasty red herring shows up, Twitter (or X, if you must) erupts. This collective experience is part of the "stickiness" of the game. You aren't just solving a puzzle; you're participating in a global conversation about how annoying the word "Muffler" can be when it's grouped with "Scarf" instead of "Car Parts."
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Don't fall for the "Four of a Kind" trap. Sometimes there are four words that perfectly describe a category, but they aren't the intended category. The game often includes five or six words that could fit a theme. If you see five "Colors," you know one of them belongs somewhere else.
Also, watch out for the "Association vs. Definition" error. "Fire" and "Water" are associated, but they aren't in the same category unless the category is "Elements" or "Things that come out of a hose." If the other two words are "Earth" and "Air," you're golden. If they are "Steam" and "Ice," you're looking at "States of Water," and "Fire" is a distraction.
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Actionable Tips for Your Next Grid
- Say it out loud. If you’re stuck on the Purple category, vocalizing the words can help you hear rhymes or prefixes you’d otherwise miss.
- Shuffle often. The default layout is designed to be confusing. Use the shuffle button to break your brain's "first impression" of how the words relate.
- The "One-Word" Test. If you think a category is "Types of Dogs," look at each word and ask: "Is this strictly a dog?" If you have "Boxer" and "Pound," one of those might be a trap for a "Boxing" or "Units of Weight" category.
- Wait for the "Click." Never guess unless you are 90% sure. You only get four mistakes. If you’re down to your last life, take a break. Come back in an hour. Your subconscious will keep working on the categories for today’s connections while you’re doing other things.
The Wrap-Up on Word Logic
The beauty of these puzzles is that they remind us how flexible language is. A single word can be a noun, a verb, a name, and a brand all at once. Succeeding at Connections isn't about having the biggest vocabulary; it’s about having the most flexible mind. It’s about being willing to admit that your first instinct was wrong and looking at the board with fresh eyes.
Next time you open the grid, remember that the "obvious" answer is rarely the right one. Look for the overlaps, find the weird words, and don't be afraid to think about how a word sounds rather than just what it means.
Next Steps for Players:
Start by identifying the "weirdest" word on the board before looking for any pairs. Once you've found the outlier, try to find three other words that share a secondary or tertiary characteristic with it. This "bottom-up" approach prevents you from falling into the red-herring traps set by the easy categories. Practice looking for "hidden" connections like "words that contain a fruit" (e.g., Appalachian, Banana, Pomegranate) to train your brain for the difficult Purple level.