What is Connections?
If you like word games like Wordle, then Connections is for you. This is a word game designed and created by the New York Times game staff and is not to be confused with the British television game show of the same name, which aired from 1985-90.
There have also been suggestions put forth by Victoria Coren Mitchell, host of the BBC television quiz show Only Connect, that Connections is simply a clone of their contest, which has aired for 19 seasons.
Wyan Liu, who is also charged with the task of creating the daily and world-famous New York Times crossword, is also the editor and creator of Connections. Since its release, Connections has grown to be second in popularity only to Wordle among the games offered by the New York Times. It’s proven to be the most popular in-house game creation since the New York Times was releasing the mini-crossword in 2014.
However, while Wordle is basically a straightforward vocabulary game, Connections is learning more into the realm of a brain teaser.
How To Play Connections
With the word game Connections, you are presented with a group of 16 words. Your task is to slot these words in four distinct groups that each have an element of connection. For instance, the words bonus, promotion and raise would slot nicely into a category of things that are nice to get at work. Another example – Boston, Kansas and Chicago would qualify as a group of rock bands that are also places.
On occasion during game play, you will find that some words lend themselves to inclusion in more than one category and in this instance, you are permitted to place them into multiple categories.
Each of the categories are indicated by a colour which coordinates with the level of difficulty assigned to that category. Yellow is considered the easiest to solve. Blue is next on the list, followed by green, with purple considered the most daunting level of challenge. The term easy can be considered subjective in this instance. No level of the Connections game will come to you easily. That’s part of the challenge of playing.
In solving puzzles at Connections UK (similar principle to Wordle), you will challenge your skill level in wordplay, word structure, and meaning, as well as your knowledge of trivia. The creators of the game will try to trip you up with the use of homophones – two words that sound the same, yet have different meanings, such as their and they’re.
If you find yourself at a standstill in your bid to solve the puzzle, hit the shuffle button. This will rearrange the order of the words, perhaps spiking a new train of thought in regards to solutions.
Connections gives you four tries to solve each day’s puzzle. Should you fail in your daily task, the answer will be revealed at the end of fourth attempt, with the words placed in their correct corresponding colour categories.
Connections Tips And Game Strategies
Perhaps the most prudent piece of advice one can heed when playing Connections is to take your time. In this instance, patience is absolutely a virtue. Hurrying to try and get to the answer is only going to lead to frustration, disappointment and ultimately, failure.
Tips to keep in mind – homonyms such as park, pitcher and chair often are going to be utilized in more than one category. Check to see how these multi-meaning words fit with other of the day’s words. For instance, with chair, look for words such as sit, sofa, or settee. If they aren’t part of the puzzle, then you are likely looking at the definition of chair as the head of a board or organization.
Where To Play Connections in the UK
You can choose to simply play Connections on the New York Times games site. If you do, be forewarned – you will be playing with the American spelling of words.
Should you fancy a UK version of Connections, options include Wordlinkle, which uses the British spelling of words in the same style of game.
Similar Alternative Games To Connections
As much fun as it is to challenge your brain with Connections, you only get the chance to play once a day. If you still want to challenge your knowledge of words, these games can also prove to be an entertaining option.
Spelling Bee
In this word online free game, you will be given seven letters. Your assignment is to come up with as many words as you can from combining those seven letters.
Dabble
In this word game app (available in the UK) you are given 20 letters. The clock is set at five minutes. Before this time period expires, you must assemble a two-letter word, a three-letter word, a four-letter word, a five-letter word and a six-letter word.
Bananagrams
This word game, similar to Connections UK could be categorized as a more intense variety of scrabble. Each player starts out with a set of letters on separate tiles. The objective is to use up all of your tiles by creating a word as quickly as possible. The first to do so shouts out the word “peel” and then everyone must grab a new set of tiles. The game continues until all the tiles are issued. The first person at that point to use up all of their tiles is the winner.
If you are into word games, try an alternative like Wordle or try real money slots using new mobile apps in 2025 here.
