NYT Connections Hints for Today, July 14: How to Play, Tips to Win, and Answers

If you thought Wordle was hard, NYT Connections is here to make you feel worse. The New York Times’ NYT Connections is the daily brain game that will mess with your head in a good way. The daily word game gives you 16 words and challenges you to figure out what strange, fantastic, or absolutely chaotic groups they belong to. Four groupings of four people. One secret topic for each.  Four chances to mess it up.

How to Play NYT Connections?

Connections looks easy at first: you get 16 words and have to put them into 4 groups of 4. Each group has a secret theme, such as breakfast items, Marvel heroes, iconic rock bands, or anything abstract that makes your brain hurt, like "words with silent letters." The twist is that some words seem like they should be in more than one group, but they aren’t. 

Connections is more than just wordplay; it's also about tricking your mind.  You start to see the connections, and just when you think you've figured out a category, the game takes a turn and eats one of your four blunders. You will doubt yourself.  You might think the word "jam" had to do with music, but then you find out it's a breakfast spread. 

The difficulty level is colour-coded. 

Yellow group = Easy win (most of the time) 

Green = A little sly

Blue = Getting hot

Purple = Where your confidence starts dying 

You may play the game for free on the NYT Games website or in the NYT Games app on your phone It's available for both iOS and Android.  You can also go back and play old puzzles if you want to be adventurous.

Tips to Win

Before you start, here are some quick tips: 

Don't merely look at the meanings of words.  Say the words out loud, mix them up in your head, and try strange combinations.  You won't believe how often the strangest four words come together. 

Look for clear patterns first.  Days of the week, countries, and colors are examples of things that are often a giveaway.

Keep your guesses to yourself.  You can only make four mistakes, so don't tap until you're sure.  Don't think of it as a race; think of it as a puzzle.

Begin when you are really smart.  This game is too good to just scroll through before bed. 

NYT Connections Categories for Today

Yellow: Shades of blue.

Green: Adjectives for a sports car.

Blue: Words before "Roger/s."

Purple: Disney animated characters plus a letter.

NYT Connections Hints for Today

Yellow: Blue has so many shades

Green: This is how you describe a sports car’s design

Blue: Nicknames from a TV show

Purple: Be creative with some Disney names

NYT Connections Answers for Today

Shades of blue: baby, ice, powder, sky 

Adjectives for a sports car: compact, fast, sleek, sporty

Words before "Roger/s": Ginger, Jolly, Mister, Roy

Disney animated characters plus a letter: abut, belled, flounders, scary

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