Strands
The New York Times themed word search: find hidden words on a letter grid, including a 'spangram' that spans the board.
Words
Word games
ConnectionsDaily Word Grouping Puzzle: Sort 16 Words into Four Sets
Connections shows a grid of sixteen words that secretly belong to four groups of four, such as things that share a theme or words that hide another word. You pick four tiles you think belong together and submit; each group is color-coded by difficulty from yellow (easiest) to purple (trickiest). It's free to play in your browser, with one puzzle a day and no account needed. There is no unlimited mode: once today's puzzle is done, the next one comes tomorrow.
Play Connections →Opens the official site, nytimes.com
How to play Connections
- Tap four words you think share a connection, then press Submit.
- If all four belong to the same group, that group is revealed with its category name.
- A wrong guess costs one of your four mistakes; "one away" means three of your four are right.
- Find all four groups before you run out of mistakes. A new grid appears each day.
Tips
- Look for the decoy: most grids include a word that fits two groups, so solve the group you are surest of first.
- The purple group is often wordplay, like hidden words, homophones or words that can precede the same word.
- Shuffle the grid to break up misleading pairings before committing a guess.
We never post the answer to today's puzzle.
Watch out for copies
Several other sites use the Connections name. The original is at nytimes.com, by Wyna Liu; that's the only one we link to.
Games like Connections
Full list with notes →Spelling Bee
The New York Times honeycomb puzzle: build as many words as you can from seven letters, always using the center letter.
Words
Wordle
The original five-letter word game: guess the hidden word in six tries, with colored tiles telling you which letters are right.
Words
Bracket City
The Atlantic's daily puzzle of clues nested inside brackets: solve the innermost clues first to unlock the outer ones.
WordsTriviaArchive
Squaredle
A daily word search on a small letter grid: swipe through touching letters to find every hidden word, including a bonus word.
WordsArchive
Connections: Sports Edition
The sports version of Connections from The Athletic: sort 16 sports names and terms into four hidden groups of four.
SportsWords
Contexto
Find the secret word by meaning: every guess is ranked by how close it is to the answer, from 1 down to thousands.
WordsArchive
Semantle
Guess a secret word by meaning: every guess gets a similarity score from an AI word model, with unlimited tries.
WordsArchive
Connections FAQ
What is Connections?
Connections shows a grid of sixteen words that secretly belong to four groups of four, such as things that share a theme or words that hide another word. You pick four tiles you think belong together and submit; each group is color-coded by difficulty from yellow (easiest) to purple (trickiest). It's free to play in your browser, with one puzzle a day and no account needed.
Is Connections free?
Yes. It's free to play in your browser, with one puzzle a day and no account needed.
Does Connections have an unlimited mode?
There is no unlimited mode: once today's puzzle is done, the next one comes tomorrow.
Can you play Connections on a phone?
Yes, in the phone browser.
Where is the official Connections site?
Connections is played at nytimes.com, made by Wyna Liu and published by The New York Times. Other sites use the same name; they are not the original.
All the Dles is an unofficial directory. Connections belongs to Wyna Liu / The New York Times; we only link to it. Added Oct 23, 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.