Explore The Exciting World Of Connections: The New Daily Word Challenge

Connections is the daily word challenge that is the perfect complement to its New York Times stablemate, Wordle. Launched in July 2023, Connections quickly became the second-most played game on the New York Times app. This engaging game not only tests your vocabulary but also challenges your ability to find links between words, making it both a fun and educational experience.

In Connections, players are tasked with uncovering the hidden relationships among a set of words. You will encounter various categories, and your goal is to group the words accordingly. Each puzzle consists of 16 words divided into four distinct categories, showcasing a broad range of themes that keep the game fresh and exciting every day!

As you dive into Connections, you will discover that the game is designed to stimulate your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Whether you are a casual player looking for a fun distraction or a serious word aficionado aiming to master the game, there’s something in it for everyone. So, grab your thinking cap and let's unravel the fascinating world of Connections!

What You Will Learn

Understanding the mechanics of how to play the game effectively.
Strategies to identify and categorize words quickly.
Insights into the daily challenges and hints provided for players.
Tips from the editor on improving your gameplay and decision-making.

How To Play 'Connections'

The game challenges players to find common threads between a series of words. Players must group them and name the categories. Each puzzle has 16 words, with each group of words separated into four categories. The uniting themes are from a broad range of categories.

stock photo woman on phone — A stock photo of a woman on a phone. 'Connections' is the latest online word puzzle taking the world by storm.Getty Image

If all four words are correctly placed into each set, those words will be removed from the board. Each incorrect guess counts toward the mistake tally. Players can make up to four mistakes before the game ends.

Should it make the process of guessing the connections easier, players can shuffle and rearrange the board. The board also has a color-coding system representing levels of difficulty. Yellow represents the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. A group's color will only be revealed once the words in a group have been correctly connected.

To make the task even trickier, sometimes a word can belong to more than one category—but there is only one correct answer. Connections editor Wyna Liu has been editing puzzles at the New York Times since 2020. She explained the best tactic if you found a word could belong in more than one category, and that was to try working out a different category before making your first guess.

"Doing so might take one of those extra cards out of contention, or at least remove a few cards from the board, making other categories easier to see," Liu said.

'Connections' #312 Clues for Thursday, April 18

Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today's Connections categories.

Yellow: These are things you might see walking down a city street.
Green: For these words, think of something in your head.
Blue: These words are associated with a size.
Purple: Each of these words is associated with a shiny color.

The answers for today's Connections will be revealed at the end of this article, so please scroll down with caution if you want to work them out for yourself.