The Rise Of Connections: A New Challenge From The New York Times

Connections, the latest New York Times word game, has taken the internet by storm since its June 2023 launch. It is now the news outlet's second most-played brainteaser after the hugely popular Wordle. While Wordle, which was created by Josh Wardle, requires players to find one word a day, Connections challenges players to find common threads between a series of words. Players must group them and name the categories.

Like Wordle, the new game can be played online on web browsers and mobile devices. If you're not yet familiar with the game, Newsweek has provided some instructions below.

How To Play 'Connections'

Each puzzle consists of 16 words, with each group of words separated into four categories. The uniting themes are from a broad range of categories. 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 advised that if you notice that there are five or more words that belong to one category, try pivoting to 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.

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.

'Connections' #317 Clues for Tuesday, April 23

Newsweek has some hints to help you figure out today's Connections categories. Yellow: These words are associated with being rejected or shooed away. Green: For these words, think of the ground. Blue: These words are associated with large bodies of saltwater. Purple: Each of these words is associated with a famous actor's work.

'Connections' #317 Answers for Tuesday, April 23

Yellow Category: TROWN OUT

• Boot
• Bounce
• Eject
• Toss

Green Category: TERRA FIRMA

• Earth
• Ground
• Land
• Soil

Blue Category: SEAS

• Baltic
• Black
• Philippine
• Red

Purple Category: TOM HANKS MOVIES

• Big
• Philadelphia
• Splash
• Sully

Did you guess the answers correctly? If so, congratulations. If not, there will be another opportunity to crack the puzzle tomorrow. Connections is released at midnight in your local time zone. Newsweek will be back with another round of hints and tips for each new game.