Connections is basically the morning coffee of the internet. You wake up, you stare at 16 little squares, and for five minutes, you convince yourself that "mousse" and "bore" are definitely part of an animal homophone group because, you know, moose and boar. But honestly? The New York Times puzzle editors are smarter than that. They love it when you fall for the red herring. They live for the moment you waste your second-to-last guess on a connection that seems way too obvious.
If you are currently staring at the grid for April 28 and feeling like your brain is short-circuiting, don't sweat it. This particular puzzle, especially the version from the 2025 cycle, is a classic example of "one word, two meanings." You've got words like TIRE and EXHAUST sitting there, practically begging you to group them with car parts. But if you've played this game long enough, you know that the easiest path is usually a trap.
NYT Connections Hints April 28: Breaking Down the Logic
Let's talk about why this one trips people up. Most players start by scanning for synonyms. That’s a solid strategy, but today’s grid is more about how words feel or where they end up rather than just what they mean.
For the NYT Connections hints April 28 puzzle, you need to look past the physical objects. Think about your energy levels. Think about what a detective might find at a messy crime scene. If you can separate the "car" vibes from the "tired" vibes, you’re halfway there.
The Yellow Group: Keeping Things in Place
This is typically the "easy" category, though I find that "easy" is a relative term when you're pre-caffeine. These words are all things you’d likely find in a bathroom cabinet or a professional salon.
👉 See also: NYT Connections September 25 2025: Why Today’s Grid is Messing With Your Head
- Think about texture.
- Think about hold.
- One of these is also a dessert, but don't let the chocolate cravings distract you.
The Green Group: Stripped Back
If you like minimalism, you'll find this group pretty quickly. These words describe things that are unadorned. No frills. No extra fluff.
- If a room is totally empty, what do you call it?
- If a plan is simple and has no backups, what’s the word for that extra tire? Wait, that’s a hint.
The Blue Group: CSI Vibes
This is where it gets a bit more technical. Imagine you're Sherlock Holmes or a lead on a forensic team. You’re looking for things that leave a trace.
- One word here is a major red herring because it also fits in the "Hair" category.
- Another word looks like it belongs in a garage, but here, it's just evidence left on the pavement.
The Purple Group: The Burnout
Purple is the wildcard. Often, it’s a wordplay category (like "Words that start with a planet" or "____ Cake"), but today it’s more about a shared state of being.
- Every word here is a synonym for being absolutely, 100% done.
- You’ve got two words that look like they belong to a car’s underside. Ignore the car. Think about your energy at 4:00 PM on a Friday.
The Actual Answers for April 28
If you’ve run out of guesses or just want to see if your hunch was right, here is the breakdown. This grid is a masterclass in using "Hair" as a distraction across three different categories.
Hair Products (Yellow)
GEL, MOUSSE, SPRAY, WAX.
Straightforward enough. These are all substances used to style your hair. The only real trick here was not pairing "Mousse" with "Bore" (Boar).
Austere (Green)
BARE, PLAIN, SIMPLE, SPARE.
This is about things that are basic. "Spare" is the tricky one here because people often think of a spare tire first, but in this context, it means lean or minimalist.
Clues At A Crime Scene (Blue)
FIBER, FINGERPRINT, HAIR, TIRE MARK.
See what they did there? They put "Hair" here instead of in the "Hair Products" category. It’s a classic NYT move. "Tire Mark" also usually drags people toward a car category that doesn't actually exist.
Weary (Purple)
BORE, DRAIN, EXHAUST, TIRE.
This is the one that humbles people. Every single word here—Bore, Drain, Exhaust, Tire—could be a verb for making someone feel extremely tired. "Exhaust" and "Tire" are the big car-part traps. If you tried to group Tire, Tire Mark, and Exhaust earlier, you likely hit a "one away" message.
Why We Get Stuck on Connections
It’s called functional fixedness. It’s a cognitive bias that limits you to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used. When you see the word TIRE, your brain immediately goes: Rubber. Car. Wheel. To beat the NYT editors, you have to break that link. You have to see TIRE and think: Fatigue. Flag. Weaken. Experts who study these types of puzzles, like Wyna Liu, the lead editor for Connections, specifically design the grids to exploit these mental shortcuts. They want you to see the "obvious" connection so that the real one stays hidden until you've used up a couple of lives.
Pro-Tips for Tomorrow’s Grid
- Shuffle is your friend. Sometimes seeing the words in a different physical order breaks the "false" associations your brain has made.
- Say them out loud. Sometimes the sound of a word triggers a different meaning than the spelling does.
- Identify the "Double Agents." Before you hit submit on your first group, look for any word that could easily fit into two categories. If you see "Hair," and you see "Gel," don't assume they go together. Look for other things "Hair" could be, like evidence or a homophone.
If you managed to solve today's puzzle without losing a single life, you've got some serious lateral thinking skills. If not? Well, there’s always tomorrow’s grid. The best way to improve is to consciously look for the wordplay before you look for the synonyms.
To keep your streak alive, try to solve the most difficult-looking word first. Find the word that has the fewest possible meanings and build a category around it. This usually helps clear the board of the "background noise" words that are only there to distract you.