NYT Connections Hints Today — Daily Answers, Clues & Solutions
NYT Connections is a daily word puzzle from The New York Times where you sort 16 words into 4 groups of 4. Each group shares a hidden theme. We provide daily hints, clues, and complete answers for every puzzle — updated at midnight ET. Our progressive hint system lets you get exactly the help you need without spoiling the entire puzzle.
How to Play NYT Connections
NYT Connections is one of the most popular daily word games from The New York Times, alongside Wordle, Strands, and the Mini Crossword. Created by puzzle editor Wyna Liu, the game challenges you to find hidden connections between 16 seemingly unrelated words.
- Study the Board: You're shown 16 words arranged in a 4×4 grid. Read all words carefully before making your first guess.
- Find Groups of Four: Identify 4 words that share a common theme. Themes can range from straightforward (like "Types of Fruit") to deviously tricky (like "Words that follow 'Home'").
- Submit Your Guess: Select 4 words and submit. If correct, the group is revealed with its color and theme name.
- Watch Your Mistakes: You only get 4 mistakes before the game ends. The game tells you when you're "one away" (3 out of 4 correct).
- Solve All Four: Complete all 4 groups to win! Share your color-coded results with friends.
Understanding the NYT Connections Colors
Each category in NYT Connections is color-coded to indicate difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow (Easiest): The most straightforward category. These connections are usually obvious — common themes like "Things in a Kitchen" or "Types of Music."
- 🟩 Green (Moderate): Requires some thought. The connection might not be immediately obvious but becomes clear once you see it.
- 🟦 Blue (Tricky): Requires deeper knowledge or lateral thinking. You might need to consider less common meanings of words.
- 🟪 Purple (Hardest): The trickiest category — often involving wordplay, hidden words inside other words, words that precede/follow a common word, or abstract conceptual connections.
Pro Tip: Always try to solve Yellow first. Each correct group removes 4 words from the board, making remaining groups easier to identify.
Expert Tips for Solving NYT Connections
- Look for the Purple trap first: Before guessing, identify words that seem to fit multiple categories. These are often "trap words" designed to mislead you toward wrong groups — they usually belong to Purple.
- Think about word associations: Words like "BANK" could mean a financial bank, a river bank, or a pool bank shot. Consider all possible meanings.
- Check for prefixes and suffixes: Purple categories often involve words that share a hidden prefix or suffix (like "___ HOUSE" or "FIRE___").
- Read words aloud: Sometimes connections involve pronunciation or sounds rather than spelling.
- Use process of elimination: Once you've solved 2-3 groups, the remaining words become much easier to categorize.
- Don't be afraid to guess: If you're confident about 3 words, try different 4th words to find the right combination.
Today's NYT Connections Strategy
Today's NYT Connections puzzle #1043 (April 19, 2026) is rated Medium difficulty. A solid medium-difficulty puzzle. The Yellow and Green categories should be approachable, but Blue and Purple will require careful thinking.
Why Use Our NYT Connections Hints?
- Progressive Disclosure: Unlike other sites that dump all answers at once, we give you 4 levels of hints per category — from vague clues to specific word reveals.
- Spoiler Protection: Full answers are hidden behind a spoiler wall so you never accidentally see them.
- Daily Updates: We publish hints and solutions every day as soon as the new puzzle drops.
- Past Solutions Archive: Browse all previous puzzle answers in our searchable archive.
- Expert Commentary: Our editor provides daily strategy notes for tricky puzzles.
- Mobile Friendly: Works perfectly on phones, tablets, and desktops.
Play More Word Puzzles
Love NYT Connections? Check out our other puzzle experiences:
Sports Connections
Daily sports-themed puzzle
Puzzle Archive
Browse past puzzles
Create Your Own
Build custom puzzles
Sports Hints
Hints for sports puzzles
Frequently Asked Questions About NYT Connections
We provide 4 progressive hints for each of the 4 categories in today's NYT Connections puzzle. Start with the vaguest clue (category difficulty color) and work your way to more specific hints (category theme, then individual words). This lets you get exactly the help you need without spoiling everything.
A new NYT Connections puzzle is released every day at midnight Eastern Time (ET). We update this page with hints and answers as soon as the new puzzle is available, typically within minutes of release.
You are allowed 4 mistakes per puzzle. When you make an incorrect guess, you lose one of your mistake tokens. If you use all 4, the game ends and all remaining answers are revealed. The game helpfully tells you when you are "one away" — meaning 3 of your 4 selected words are in the same group.
"One away" means that 3 out of the 4 words you selected belong to the same group. You're very close — just one word needs to be swapped! Look at your 4 selected words and think about which one doesn't quite fit the pattern of the other three.
The Purple category (🟪) is always the hardest in NYT Connections. It frequently involves wordplay, puns, hidden words within other words, or abstract conceptual links. Examples include "words that follow 'HOME'" or "first names that are also cities." The trick with Purple is to think beyond the obvious meaning of each word.
The official NYT Connections only offers one puzzle per day. However, you can play unlimited Connections-style puzzles on ConnectionsSports.com! We offer a sports-themed version with a full archive of past puzzles, plus you can create and share your own custom puzzles.
Scroll down on this page to our "Past NYT Connections Answers" section. We keep a complete archive of all previous puzzles with their full solutions, organized by date and puzzle number.
Yes! NYT Connections is free to play on The New York Times website and mobile app. It's part of their free Games section alongside Wordle. You don't need a NYT subscription to play Connections.
NYT Connections was created by Wyna Liu, an associate puzzle editor at The New York Times. The game launched in June 2023 and quickly became one of the most popular daily word games, alongside Wordle and the Mini Crossword.
No. ConnectionsSports.com is an independent fan website and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to The New York Times, Wyna Liu, or the official Connections game. We provide hints and answers for educational and entertainment purposes only.