# Cheatsheet for NYT's Connections Puzzle Game https://www.nytimes.com/games/connections Connections is a puzzle game offered by the _New York Times_ alongside Wordle and crosswords. It shows a grid of 16 words and challenges you to pick out the set of 4 words that have some connection to each other. You do this 4 times and you are done. Although not well-explained, the connections are rated from easy to hard, which is denoted with a colour scheme that is revealed when you find a matching set of 4 words: yellow (easiest), green (easy), blue (hard), purple (hardest). A key feature of Connections is that once you've found 3 of the 4 sets of words, the 4 remaining, unused words must be the last set. This means you do not have to identify all 4 sets, you can win by only finding 3 of the 4. This is similar to a crossword where you might not know a word, but if you solve all (or most) of the "cross" words, you can still guess the word you do not know. Connections allows only 4 wrong guesses. However if a wrong guess includes 3 of the 4 words of a set, it gives you a prompt that you are "one away." ## Cheatsheet Now that hundreds of puzzles have been released, we can see that certain patterns are commonly used. Most sets fall into one of a few categories. Knowing this is not enough to solve the puzzle, but it gives you a list that you can work through when looking for connections. | Pattern | Example | Explaination | | ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | Mean the same thing | fall, slip, spill, trip | Synonyms | | Types of the same thing | bowtie, elbow, tube, wheel | Pasta shapes | | ____ Word | blue, computer, poker, potato | ____ chip | | Pop culture reference | ball, prince, pumpkin, slipper | Cinderella | | First letters mean something | army, colony, livery, shiny | Body part + y | | Words are first letters of something | mass, kent, wash, mary | Start of State names | | Palidrones | bib, eye, gag, pop | Same spelt backward | | Homophones for something | are, queue, sea, why | Homophones for alphabet letters | | Share a common property | mood, record, table, volleyball | Things you can "set" | --- The basic kind of set are four words that **mean the same thing** (or are "synonyms"). Examples: * jab, poke, prod, stick * fall, slip, spill, trip One trick (here and below) is to make sure you consider if the word is a noun or a verb. Often words that are commonly used as verbs (e.g., row) will purposely be used as a noun (have a "row" with someone), and vice versa. --- Another basic pattern are four words that are **types of the same thing**: * adder, boa, mamba, moccasin (types of snakes) * bowtie, elbow, tube, wheel (pasta shapes) * option, return, shift, tab (keyboard keys) --- The pattern can be that the 4 given words are used in combination with another (hidden) word, as in ____ **Word**: * teddy, boo-boo, honey, brown (____ bear) * mineral, spring, still, tap (____ water) * blue, computer, poker, potato (____ chip) * amigo, king, stooge, tenor (the three ____s) --- Some words are connected through a **pop culture reference**: * ball, prince, pumpkin, slipper (cinderella) * bucks, heat, jazz, nets (NBA teams) --- All of these patterns have to do with the meaning of the word. Other patterns have to do with the word itself: how it is spelled, how it sounds when pronounced, etc. Another pattern is that the **first letters of the words mean something**: * army, colony, livery, shiny (body parts + y) * goldilocks, ironic, leadershop, tinder (starting with metals) * creamsicle, journeyman, kisscam, rushmore (starting with rock band) (also a pop culture reference) --- Or conversely, **the words are the first letters of something**: * mass, kent, wash, mary (start of state names) * ear, mar, mer, sat (start of planet names) --- Other kinds of word patterns are **palindrones** which are spelt the same frontward and backward: * bib, eye, gag, pop * kayak, level, mom, race car --- Or homophones (words that are **pronounced the same as another word**): * are, queue, sea, why (homophones for letters of the alphabet) --- The category I find the hardest are when the four words **share a common property**: * corset, diabolo, hourglass, wasp (things cinched in the middle) * atm, casino, schedule, spatula (things with slots) * mood, record, table, volleyball (things you can set) --- ## Opening Grid Here are some other hints when playing Connections. Everyone gets the same starting order which sometimes contain an easy to see **spurious connection**. Be wary of the opening grid. If there is an "obvious" connection, often they work hard to place each word in a different set, so sometimes this can be useful to know. ## Connections with 5 Possible Words Probably most frustrating, more than not seeing a connection even, is when you have **5 words** with the same connection, and you don't know which should be left out. In this case, start by looking for a subtle difference. For example, at a sports game, you might encounter all of these: astroturf, kisscam, jumbotron, scoreboard, skybox. But the "kisscam" is a gag or concept, not an actual "thing" you can see, so it is the one word that is not in the set. Other times, all five words belong without any difference. In this case, I feel you should be able to solve the puzzle from the easiest set (yellow) to hardest set (purple), and the extra word will get used up before you have to decide which 4 of the 5 words is the Connection. Unfortunately, the authors of Connections do always see things the way that I do. For example, Connections #5 contains 5 condiments: ketchup, mustard, relish, mayo, tartar. Trying the hint of looking for a subtle difference, you might remove tartar as it is less common on burgers than the other four. However this is deemed wrong. Eventually when you solve the puzzle, the yellow set of words has nothing to do with these words. The green set is: ketchup, relish, mayo, tartar. Why is mustard missing? Because it is part of the purple set: green, mustard, plum, scarlet (Clue characters). This forces you to solve the harder set (purple) before you can solve the easier set (green).